Its COMING!!!!

Oh my stars and garters.. I broke down and made the call. The Saeco Gran Crema is on its way. I just spoke to the loveliest of men (hey.. whoever fills my coffee needs is a lovely whatever ok?) at :

www.espressotec.com

and he assured me that DHL will be picking it up in 30 or so minutes than it will be whizzing off to me. Thank all the deities. The coffee I have been subsisting on is wicked strong. ;)

Why did this take so long for me to decide you ask? Well I had a rotten case of food poisoning this weekend (5 pounds gone in 12 hours bad ok??) and coffee was nearly the last thing on my mind. I was so queasy that I couldn't even KNIT. I KNOW. Madness you say.. and I agree.

The sweater is coming along still. Not nearly as fast as the last one, but I am blaming that on the poison too. It was a knit free weekend. Weird.

The weather is turning nasty here, I am watching the gusts blow down the street sideways. Yucky ducky.

Stay warm Possums!!

I've got a case of the Fridays

Which is far better than the Mondays right? Maybe I just need more pieces of flair? Mm. In any case...

The Good!

I made another etailer order this past week. From an awesome little site called Skindecent!

http://www.skindecent.com/index.php

Now you all know I am a product ho enthusiast right? well this little lady blew me out of the water with her outstanding customer service and more importantly.. her PRODUCTS! Wowsa! I ordered a 3 pack of her Foaming Bath Butter and having just got out of the shower and using her Fresh Baked Ginger Snaps scent I am in LOVE. I also got them in Sultry as Sin and Brown Sugar. The liquid Shea came to me in Brown Sugar as well and French Apple Pastry (which made my mouth fill with drool when I smelled it) and is resting comfortably on my skin right now! I also tried her Eau De Parfum in Brown Sugar (are you seeing the theme yet?) and Sultry as Sin. I'm wearing the Brown Sugar layered with the French Apple pastry and I am making myself hungry. Fantastic site, can't recommend her enough! She even emailed me to tell me I forgot to include what scents I want for my FREEBIES! Marliss.. you rock my world you do. I love supporting small business and what a bonus if its Canadian! LONG LIVE SKINDECENT!

Last night was a UFC Fight Night (I LOVE YOU SPIKE TV), A new Ep of Inside the UFC and 90 minutes of The Office. Does TV get any better? Well maybe tonight I will catch up on my Supernatural (no laughing) and then it will be perfect. I get so excited watching the UFC, Chris just laughs. He is a lucky man isn't he?

THE BAD

My boyfriend died. No really. My beloved espresso machine starting shooting water out of what I assume is a broken seal and gave it up after EXACTLY one month of use. Rotten bastard. Back he goes and I am now in the market for a new love. A Saeco maybe.. like this one..

I hate being let down. Meh to you stupid espresso machine. London Drugs better be co-operative about this.. I'd hate to have to smack a bitch. Or would I? Any recommendations are appreciated. After I cry myself to sleep, I'll start looking for a new love.

THE UGLY!!

Nope no ugly here! I am cracking along on Chris' sweater and should maybe have some progress pix for ya'll soon. Damn he is TALL so it goes a little slower I say.

I am working tomorrow so if anyone is yarn hoing about I'll be there minding the shop and having a yarntastic day. Good weekend all...

xoxoxo!

FRIDAY!!!!

Not that Friday really means much to someone who doesn't work the Monday to Friday grind, but it seems there is so much fun in the weekends... Like this weekend for example. We have a superexcellentfun birthday Fete to hit which will involve much drinking and dancing. Tomorrow is the FIRST Make 1 Yarns pub night! Now that Calgary has totally made the leap into the next century and banned all public smoking in bars, it is safe to take yer knitting and booze it up. I sound a right lush eh? Well those days are over, I am an official lightweight nowadays. I mean I have exception to the rule times, but mostly, its a few drinks and I'm schonckered. God I love beer.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS

-Max is on a carpet. A dirty really needs to be cleaned carpet, but yes, a carpet.

-The foaming wand (that sounds DIRTY) on my boyfriend espresso machine works like a hot diggity damn. Hence my obsession with lattes right now. I had a cinnamon one this am. Mmmmm........

-Max does indeed have superpowers. The power to super grovel, the power to melt all hearts with a square km, and the power to kill with teh cute. Oh and the power to annoy me mightily when I want to sleep. His weaknesses are limited to terrier kryptonite (cookies and all people food, which have all the power in the world over him) and bigger scarier dogs in the alley. VIVA LA MAX!

-Max will maybe one day have his own skul sweater. MAYBE.

KNITTING NEWS

I have finished the Malabrigo sweater. No modelled shots right now, I really can't take the pics of myself, it looks so My space :P So this is it! It was a dream to knit up, even if I did have to rip it back a few times to tweak it.

As you can see I am still hooked on the ribbed sleeves, Yup. The colour is just called Burgundy (how dull!) but Chris thinks it looks like wood grain, and I think it looks like Mars. I'd call it Red Planet if I was the Malabrigo peeps but alas, I am not. What do you think?

NEXT UP:

See this? How cool is this? I am the luckiest of the lucky to have gotten such a wonderfully coolio bag. AND that yarn? That yarn (Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in EMBERS) is right now at this very minute being turned into a v-neck sweater for Chris. Yum yum yum! Now in case you missed it:

Skulls!! Sorry for the craptastic picture, I don't know how to work the camera that good yet. Hells, I am lucky to have figgered out how to d/l the pics I take and re size em.

I hope you all have safe and happy weekend.. and I need to give a big virtual hug to our Morgan. You know you are loved sweet girl. Happy birthday!!

Quick one...

MAX!!!!

It is COLD here. So cold in fact I have taken to putting a little jacket on the wee dogga when he goes outside. I think he likes the attention as he seems to want to pee a lot more than usual ;) And that has nothing to do with the frozen chicken breast he scavenged from the garbage and had confiscated. He was not pleased about that.

Still..

Please.. where did the chicken go???

Please drive through

I know, I know.. I've heard all the complaints. Ok from the like 4 of you all who care how often I update but I have an excuse. Or a reason, or something I think. I left it laying around here somewhere. Under a pile of wrapping paper or maybe in the recycling, but never mind, I'm back!

Giftmas breakdown:

Have I mentioned my coffee love? If you know me at all (IRL or other) this is no surprise. I am crazy mad in love in with this bad boy! He makes me hot (coffee dirty minds!) and keeps me happy. With the addition of the sugar free syrups I have found, I am set. SET I TELL YOU!

Nope not hand knit. Just rocking anyhoo. Mine is red though, like the colour of SIN! heh heh.

Knitting breakdown in chronological order:

Top down Skul Cardigan.

Done with Blue Sky Worsted in Olive and Red. This was so unreal to knit with. It feels like cotton it does, and has a beautiful heavy drape to it. I went with a 3/4 sleeve as I really wanted a sweater I could wear with a wristband or bracelet. Silly.. maybe but I love it. The skul was fun and easy to do, I charted him out myself (keep an eye for him appearing in other places!) and am really happy with this.

Unikat Cardigan with thumbholes.

Another scrummy yarn to work with I have to say. This time I actually used waist shaping to get a nice fitted look and made super long 2x1 ribbed sleeves with thumb holes to keep the sleeves down when its cold. Great feature if I do say so myself and I see many more of these in my future. Unikat has a really nifty texture, almost kinda spongy, but so so so soft and absolutely next to the skin nice. I really loved working with this and am excited to see the new colours when they come in.

Debbil Hat for Jake

This is NOT the first time I have worked with this awesome novelty yarn (called PUNK.. how apropos huh?) but it is version 2.0 and the one that turned out the best. See I made a maroon version with ears for me (I call it my scabby hat), but Jake took one look and I knew I had to either make one for him or it would go *missing* (like my stripey arm warmers I knitted but really that is another story innit?) so I asked his preferences (Black Mom.. Duh. With devil horns) and whipped this up for him. Mine now looks slightly shoddy and the ears need to be re-done, so that pic will have to wait ok? He loves it, and has been threatened under pain of death not to give this away no matter how cute the girl. We'll see... right?

As of now I am working on a pullover (knock me down!) out of Malabrigo in Burgundy. When Amy and I opened up the box in we looked at each other and grinned like fools. "hello my next sweater!" She said.. I completely agreed and set off. It is scrumpdillyisious too. Even though I had a small hiccup that involved frogging a massive amount of work. See I did something I have never done before. I dropped a stitch (I have done that plenty before) but didn't notice until I had knit about 12-13 inches. When I laddered it up like a good girl, it went all weird and tight and made a HUGE pucker. I tried steaming it out. I tried wetting and pinning, I even tried dropping the damn stitch again. Nope. Amy was right (as usual) and so it was frogged. Whatever. It was a titch too big when I tried it on and I changed the waist shaping so all is well that ends well. Maybe. This will be my first pull over since my disgusting first sweater and I am excited to finish it.

Maybe another reason I'm excited to get it done is the luscious Lornas Laces in Ember I have waiting to knit. It came in last week and I had set aside enough to do a sweater for me when Chris came in the shop to pick me up. He wandered over to the back and called me over when he saw this yummy stuff and asked who it was for. "Me" I said. He gave me a look. You know.. a LOOK and I asked if he wanted a sweater made out of it. He was very enthusiastic about it. I also made him swear he would wear it and if he didn't I would NEVER KNIT FOR HIM EVER AGAIN. He gets it now. He really does. See I a little unresolved guilt about knitting for Chris. After the vest that never ended finally did, it was too big. I considered many options (asking him gain a lot of weight was tossed about, but eventually discarded as mean) and thought a wee bit of judicious felting may work. Guess what?

NOPE

It might fit a fat little toddler as a dress, but as a vest? Uh no. It shrunk a whopping 2 feet in length, and NOT ONE BIT in width. The strange thing? It did it in about 2 minutes. Oh well.. I was overdue a massive disaster. Lets just end the year that way eh?

I DO NOT make News Year's resolutions, but I am going to try to post more frequently ok? Think happy thoughts and I hope everyone had a fabulous Holiday season.

Happy New Years!!

The Darkside

Oh I know it starts innocently enough.. it always does. I bought some Knitpick options, I'm sure you all remember that. My only beef with them? No 16 inch size (maybe because the needles are 5 inches long but I digress...). So when one of my cords had a wonky falling out problem, I emailed them and they sent me out a new set. OK they are still in transit, I blame Canada Post. Anyhoo I decided to tinker up my own short set with the broken cable. Meh at best they are. The needles really are too long to be a comfortable 16 inches. Oh well I pulled out my trusty Denise's. Kept knitting.



Yesterday I go into work (Oh! I work Thursdays now too!) and start looking (just looking mind you) at the 16 inch Addi's. They look a lot shorter than my Denise ones. How can that be you ask? Isn't 16 inches 16 inches? You'd think so right?



NOPE. ARGH. Now I am the proud owner of 3 pairs of 16 inch Addis. I'da bought more but we didn't have all the sizes I wanted. No surprise.. they will ALL be mine soon. Oh ho yes.. they will be mine. *





This Blue Sky Worsted is quite simply.. decadent. No real better words come to mind without making me sound a screamy fan girl. All the cameras in the house have mysteriously gone missing so I still can't show you progress.. but its only needing a sleeve and a bit. Those Addi's sure help with the sleeveage. You'll see. Soon.



Since I can't find that damn camera, I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite ornament for our wacky techno tree:





* They are a supplement ok? My Knitpicks are still the shiz, but I NEED SHORT ONES TOO OK? I DON'T WANT TO DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF SIZE. omg they rok.

PS Feel better soon Morgan, Amy and Ookpik! xoxoxo!

Oh yeah.. I have an enormous disaster to talk about, but its still a little fresh. It also needs pictures to convey the full (pun there) horror of it. I felt sick for hours about it. Now its kinda funny...

I want to play guitar and be a moviestar!

Really who doesn't?

This has been a most gratifying week class wise I must say. My new Head and Fingers is popping along swimmingly, my IKEA LTK groups is painfully hilarious and is too, cruising right along. Such a great feeling to see the lightbulb going on over heads innit? I had a needle felting class on Saturday that was so much fun I almost thought they should be paying me! I sure love me some fibre lovers.

My lust for my sweater is growing by leaps and bounds. I have done up an intarsia chart for the back and it is percolating nicely. The Blue Sky worsted is like knitting with BUTTAH. Yummy scrummy.

Amy had to take a picture of me for the author section of the Felting book. Now if you know me at all, you know I HATES the camera, but I have to say.. she takes a good photo does our Amy.




I was happy to see Morgan wasn't I?


Anyhow, I am not as far done on the sweater as I reckon I could have been, but see, Jake has been home sick with a really bad sore throat and we have been whiling away the hours playing a really fun video game called ObsCure. Its a survival/horror game and he gets a real kick out of seeing me shriek (like a girl!) at some of the spookier scenes. In fact we had our own spooky scene.. one where I put a non rechargeable battery in the battery recharger and it exploded! Ok it popped and made a scary noise and freaked *me* out. Note to self (and all others) DON'T DO THAT! IT IS A BAD IDEA!! *shakes head*

The weather has broken at last. The poor dogga is much happier this way, peeing outside is much easier when its not -40. Poor wee babykins.

Today I am off to get a pedicure and have some nibblies with the Make 1 crew. I think I really do have the best job EVAR!

Argh

Why is blogger being so techy about signing in? Grr argh.. Speaking of Buffy.. season 8 coming soon. IN COMIC FORM!!

We snuck away to see the latest Bond film today. Even after Calgary traffic conspired to keep us away we still made it! Finally a good reason for those commercials eh? DANIEL CRAIG = YUMMY. Plot was a bit thin (changed from the novel) but did I mention DANIEL CRAIG BEING YUMMY? Well he is.


There has been some knitting I must say. I still can't find the camera, so verbose I must be. I bought the Stitch Diva Curiously Clever Clog pattern and got the main part of one done, but got really excited about doing a another (chut up) top down raglan in Blue Sky Worsted. Olive green with a big red skull on the back. YAY! I think I have officially set aside the clogs. GASP!

I know necessity is the mother of invention. Like how there was supposed to be 15 skeins of Olive at work but somehow.. there is only 7 (hence the red addition). We have had a rash of things going missing (Crochet hooks! DAMN YOU!) from Make 1. It makes me really sad to know that there are people out there ready to steal from not only such lovely gals, but lovely gals who are working really really hard to make a cohesive community for us fibre addicts. But I suppose there are bad elements everywhere.

It gets colder here in Cowtown.. the dog is happy he has a new sweater. I promise to take those piccies asap.

DAMMIT WHERE ARE YOU CAMERA???

HEY YOU!

Since I got complained at for my teaser post the other day (you know who you are missy) I reckon I should really update it huh? I can't find the camera so instead of posting FO pics (oh ho and yes I have a few now) I shall discuss the other things I have been doing. Ok buying alright? I LOVE getting stuff in the mail besides bills that is and have a couple of things to share with you all.


http://www.bathedandinfused.com/home.php


OMG. I ordered a couple of perfume roll ons from these lovelies a while ago and got them yesterday. Cutest packaging EVER. They came in a little Chinese take out box full of blue noodles and a BLUE FORTUNE COOKIE!!! Along with a sample of cherry scented lotion. WOWIE!! I got Pumpkin Cremasse (drools like a fool) and Vanilla Fig Cedar (which may become a signature scent for me). Really lovely EVERYTHING in this little box of fun.




Next up: Arcana Soaps and Oils

http://www.arcanasoaps.com/


They aren't selling retail themselves but I did manage to snag some from these wonderful folks:


http://magicalomaha.com/arcanagothicsoap.htm


Fantastic customer service from here I must say. Very quick and responsive. I ordered these:



Only three of them though not ALL of them ok? I'm crazy not stupid!


Last Hours of Empires Perfume Oil "...All that gamut of intensified colors, correspondent to Autumn and the setting of the sun, to over-ripe fruit and the last hours of empires."** A rich blend of precious oils, evocative of regret and resplendence, featuring highest quality Omani frankincense, true Indian sandalwood, delicate top notes of bergamot and tangerine, and the smallest wisp of black patchouli.**Theophile Gautier on Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal

Mutiny Perfume Oil: Tyrants be damned! The scent of discontent, broken ranks and open rebellion on the sea. Indonesian patchouli combines with black pepper, dark wood and a smoky haze of gunpowder

Sleepy Hollow Perfume Oil: An atmospheric ode to romantically spooky Autumn evenings, with fresh pumpkin, spiced apple brew and bonfire smoke. Perfect for the telling of deliciously scary tales.



Notice the notes? I am very much in love with resins, woods and apparently pumpkin and spices. How can a girl resist? I am in smellie good heaven. The turn around time (which is V importante if you have ever dealt with like say BPAL //rolleyes) was great for both of these places. The quality is excellent and I cannot recommend them enough.



I have also been cruising Etsy.com for some nice steals and deals. I found a really cool Canadian Artist whose stuff is quite group of 7 like (more modern) to me and purchased one of her prints:






Her name is Mandy Budan and you can find her here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=49305

I think I may need some more of her work. Its simply lovely. Seriously, I love it.SUPPORT SMALL ARTISTS!! Having said that, ACADs show and sale is next weekend. Must make time for that!




Canada Post has been playing silly buggers with me and one other order from my makeup place (everydayminerals.com) and I had to email them and they actually needed to send out a replacement parcel as my first one seems to have (waves hands around MYSTERIOUSLY)
disappeared I swear our mailman is never the same twice and stuff goes missing all the time. le sigh.



TOMORROW!! IS PS3 DAY!!! Chris and Jake are all a-quiver. ITS LIKE GIFTMAS ALREADY! Whatever floats yer boat I reckon.



There will be knitting soon.. or maybe even some crochet. Oh yeah.. I said the c word.

Stay Tuned

For another exciting episode.. coming THIS WEEK!!

NOT ANOTHER BAG! groan..

I had decided I wanted a vest. After doing one for Chris, I thought to myself, "self.. you want a vest too". I even had the yarn picked out. It was chunky and would knit up FAST. And oh boy did it ever! I started it last Friday and finished it on Tuesday. Unfortunately I made a few HUGE MISTAKES. Like making it too damn big. Like not a "oh I can fix this with a good block big", But a HOLY CRAP I LOOK LIKE A ROTTEN FRUIT big. Puffy and maybe even slightly swollen. Nice huh? Just what a gal wants.. swollen, ugly, rotten fruit chest. Nope. AND I made it too short. Le sigh. So that's whats in the bag this time. All frogged (thanks all the deities for that wondrous ball winder at work, it made short work of it) and ready to be put aside. FOR NOW. The maddening thing? I had actually kept copious notes about this pattern and it would have been cool if it had worked. But I did learn something (Amy says "vests always need to be smaller than your body!" Now I know that too!) and isn't that whats its all about?






Not one to dwell on failure I set about knittin some mittins. This is a born of necessity thing you know. Its been FREAKING COLD HERE! I used less than* one skein of Misti Alpaca Chunky and cranked these out in a couple of hours (watching FAME! And 90210.. oh TV I love you). Pattern courtesy of my head. They work as I went out last night wearing them and my hands stayed roasty toasty.





Now I have been commanded to knit a tube for Chris. He gamely walks to work on that days I work/need the car and deemed it essential to have such a thing for these cold morning walks. A tube to be pulled up and over his ears and mouth. So I got some more of the Misti Chunky (in a lovely dark grey) and shall bang one out for him. PRONTO.

In other non knitting news, this is the first year that Jake has not gone Halloweening. It made me a little sad as I remember how he loved his Sonic The Hedgehog costume I sewed him when he was 3 (Yes I can sorta sew. Not well like my Mummy, but I can hem stuff. ish.) and how he loved the whole idea of getting free candy and being scary (ok not in the sonic costume but it was so cute it could make you cry in a minnit ok?). Now he is in high school. And its all about being cool. And no way would he fit in that thing anymore.. not that I've tried. ;)

I think I may need to make Max the Dog some booties or something (not that he'd keep them on but you gotta try right?) for his little paws. I took him for a big walk the other day and his leetle toes were cold. Poor little beastie.

Oh and I shall try to get a modeled shot of the vest. If he is amenable to that. We'll see. :)







*OMG LESS THAN ONE SKEIN! These rocked me! VALUE!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween all!

Love, Keiko, Violet, Fin and Beatrix.

knitting content tomorrow maybe.. :)

OMG!

DONE!

A whole boatload of stitches later.... PHEW! It does need a block (the bottom looks a little stretched out after all that work) but it is finito! I actually finished it on Tuesday but when I got

the man to try it on, it really needed a rib (ever so small as it is) on the bottom to look truly finished. So 300 picked up stitches later.. !!

Now I can move on. Finally. :)

My head and fingers class has taken off and I couldn't be happier. My students are all over the DPN's and I feel like a proud parent watching them grow and become more confident. Aww...

I have my last felting class tonight, needle felting here we come :) It is always my favorite part of the class

Now to move onto a vest for me.

This is the ..

vest that never ends!

It just goes on and on my friends.

Some dingbat started knitting it, not knowing what it was, and she'll continue knitting it forever just because..

This is the vest that never ends... really.

I got this from Etsy.com. Sorry about the craptastic picture.. I never said I had mad photo skillz ok?

But I do love it so and have such a warm fuzzy when I wear it :)

Ok. In other news.. or in the words of Julie Chen:

"but first!"

It is snowing here. Not great monstrous whipped cream blobs, but enough that the wee dogga has to be de-snowed when he comes in from outside. And enough that the heat is cranked up. I am making some nice chili tonight that shall hopefully warm us all up.

We went and saw the new Scorsese film this weekend (The Departed). It was pretty good, but sadly I thought it could have used a little more trimming. Or a lot more violence. Mr Jack Nicholson was really good, slipping into his caricature in only a couple spots and I am sorry to say I have a *thing* for Mr Matt Damon. At least his Boston accent was good (being as he is from there I should bloody hope so!) not like Mr Martin Sheen who slipped all around that geographical area I think. We also watched Art School Confidential which was pretty entertaining (despite the lead actor having no charisma at all) and Hard Candy which is not for anyone faint of heart or sensitive in any way. I liked it (of course) but thought it was a one trick pony.

This weekend the boy heads up North and I think we are going to actually venture out and go to Amy's book party this Saturday! There is lots of media stuff going on this week for her (good luck sweet gal!) and I hear that Shaw is coming tomorrow to film the shop (I AM WORKING! OMG!! So glad I got my hair done last week! YES!) and I have my first head and fingers class. Which is FULL. YIKES!

I should really go wash some clothes now huh? ~sigh~

7 stitches!

Oh my.. I am wishing I had either a smaller husband or a bigger brain. The vest is totally coming along, but so s l o w l y. See what I mean? Nice? Yes! Ribbed? Yes! TAKING SO FREAKING LONG? YES! But really its yummy and lovely. I have had few people try to convince me to you know, start something else in the mean time.. OMG! Now I know I am NOT the norm when it comes to projects. Really, its ok, I can deal. I am one of those freaks who starts something then (with the exception of the ugly afghan) finishes it. I mean sometimes I have like half a dishcloth somewhere, but really, I can only do one project at a time. It boggles everyone from work tis true. I think I may have some fear that I will never finish anything if I have more than one thing on the go (which for knitters is tantamount to CRAZY) but its the way I am. So not only will you poor saps loyal readers be sick to death of it, so will I. AND it doesn't hurt that I am ITCHING to get my next project. ITCHING I TELLS YA!

I have another class tonight (sorry it didn't work for you Terra :/) and then start a mitten and hat (head and fingers.. no knees and toes sorry) class next Wednesday. I *really* should be cleaning some more but since I STILL HAVE NO VACUUM.. well.. DO THE MATH! Ha ha!
So Instead I leave you with a picture of my messy desk. Note the cup (roughly the size of Lake Ontario) that the boy painted for me last year at one of the 70 thousand odd field trips he took. Also of note; the hot wheels speakers with the flames we got from Winners for 5 dollars and the peeling Hello Kitty mouse pad (note to self: get new mouse pad). The desktop is a picture of the flowers by Dale Chihuly (sp?) in the lobby of the Bellagio in Vegas. OMG I LOVE GLASS.

I MISS YOU VEGAS!!

No knitting

updates today. Instead I leave you all with the thing to do this fine turkay day weekend (Besides seeing TRAILER PARK BOYS)...


http://www.zooatlanta.org/animals_panda_cam.htm

PANDA CAM! Cutest. Thing. EVER. I have died from the cute.

Happy gobbles all....

Progress

Really there has been some! The vest is coming along swimmingly. Its a time consumer with the 7 st per inch thing, but its such lovely yarn who can complain?

The colour of the stripe is more pumpkiny than it looks ( I think the red rug throws it off a bit) and has the prettiest (so NOT the word Chris wants to hear I reckon) flecks in it. YUM!

Also in the mail this week:

Duh duh DUH! OMG THEY ARE HERE!!!!!! My knit picks interchangables!!

Oh my stars and garters.. these are so wonderful to work with. Like I said to Kathy they are all the best things about needles rolled up into one big ball of needle goodness. And I shall have to apologise again for the disturbing visual that caused. OMG they are the sexiest needles ever. (again sorry :P)

I have been working like a lot this past week as the wonderful Amy and Sandra were in the big TO taking a well deserved break and hand delivering the SWEATER OF DOOM. It was hella fun, but I forgot how tiring working for a living is. I know, I know.. cry me a river right? My house is a tip but eh.. when isn't it?

Now a story that I meant to tell ya'll last week but then last week ran out! We shall call this:

THE VACUUM STORY

Or how not to get your carpets clean. Ever.

Once upon a time there was a girl who had a vacuum. It was a dirty old vacuum, but really for the amount that the girl used it, it was fine. But one fine day when the dirty old vacuum was dragged out of its small pit to be used, it had enough. The head kinda exploded (SCANNERS VACUUM!) and it breathed its last. The girl packed it up in a Glad Flex Force bag (these rock big time) and sent it to the great beyond (the garbage). The girl needed a vaccum STAT so off she went with PC (price charming ok) to the vacuum wonderland that is WALMART. After fiding the vacuum of her dreams and almost fighting off the russian hordes (ok it was a Russian GUY and there was no actual fighting, maybe a slightly dirty look or two) they bring the new vacuum home. It is a DIRT DEVIL. Like a devil on the dirt. The girl happily puts the vacuum together and starts to USE IT! OMG! The dust! The Dirt! THE GROSSNESS THAT WAS HIDING IN THE CARPET! ITS HORRIBLE! Then.. then the utmost in tragic happens. The brush roll stops turning. The dirt stops being sucked. the girl is distraught! She phones the 1.800 number for help! HELP ME! She cries. The nonplussed voice on the other end replies evilly that the BELT BROKE. This is how she must change it! But WAIT! Didn't this DIRT DEVIL just come home the day before? Why yes it did. If this dirt devil can't make it though one damn day without BREAKING, why would the girl keep it? Well she didn't. Back it went and now we begin again the quest for yet another vacuum.

Le sigh. Stupid cheap belt vaccum. I bet it had cheap shoes too. !@#$%#@!

In other news::

TRAILER PARK BOYS MOVIE TOMORROW. Show your love for Canadian Cinema (oh yes.. CINEMA!) and go support the boys on their opening weekend. I am. At 3pm. GO FORTH!

Its time for another episode of whats in the bag??

Oh my..a brown bag of yarn...

IT'S FELTED TWEED!!

This will very soon be turned into a fabulous vest for Chris! I don't think you all understand the negotiations this took. Colour is the big issue so I ended up taking him into Make 1 where I needed the help of Morgan, Suzen and of course the ever fabulous Sandra to convince him my way was (of course) the right way. He completely folded like a house of cards when he saw the wonderous felted tweed and even agreed about the colours! He looks so nice in warm tones. :)

Now if my knitpicks needles would just get here already (shipped on the 21st!) I could be the happiest girl in the house. Hey.. uh.. I'm the only girl in the house. Whatever.. I'll take what I can get.

After the Great Sweater Debacle poor Amy needs a break. She has all my tea and sympathies.

Oops.. the dogga is outside barking. Must see what up..

Have a happy weekend all!

PEEKTURES!

Is this not the most scrummy picture ever? Really..

Its the HOLY SCARF! (my made up-ness again) I did last spring and then completely forgot about. Made from some sort of handspun bought for me by a pal. It blocked out beautifully no?

Next up.. the sweater out of Lorna's Laces Superwash merino in Black Pearl. I used a Knitting Pure and Simple top down wrap pattern. Super fast knit and sososososo easy. I really do love those top downs!

See how my picot edge finally worked? I am very pleased with how this turned out. Very pleased indeed.

Misti Alpaca Chunky in Wine Melange. A pattern I just kinda made up, and it shows off the softness of this lucious stuff. I don't think it caught the reflective qualities of this yarn very well though, it has a little glow about it you know?

Close up of the nifty reversible look...

Now I have to figure out what I'm knitting next... oh such a dilemma! ;)

Of cold weather

Oh my stars and garters! After the crazy busy week I had, I needed a lovely knitting break so I decided it was time to start thinking of the coldness. Two skiens of Misti alpaca came home with me from work. They are OMG SO SOFT! Like this:

(meh blogger is being a dilhole about pix. will fix later)


I bought a lovely new jacket from SUPERSTORE (knock me down dead! I love the Joe stuff something awful no really.. http://www.joe.ca) and it will go perfectly with the FANTASGREAT scarf I whipped up. Um.. 40$ for a down coat? What kind of craziness is that?!? I promise to find a camera soon.. its too luxe not to share.

I am going to be teaching a mitten/hat course at the shop. How fun! Kureyon mittens for everyone!

Like I said above last week was all kinds of crazy, and you can really tell by the state of my house. Euw. I even pulled in some crazy this weekend getting all these super sekrit projects done and written up and and and... have I mentioned how much deadlines suck? Oh yeah.. they do, but I'm happy to do 'em!

Apparently I missed the northern lights this weekend too. Damn.. it's been a long time since I've seen them. Not since Edmonton I reckon. Maybe if I actually went outside huh?