Audrey Knits & Muses

Alpacas and yarn and fiber, oh my!

2009-08-31T15:19:04Z

I meet with knitting friends from the North Shore (the region we call the North Shore is to the North of Montreal, which is an Island) every second and fourth Wednesday of the month in a Rosemère café. I suggested visiting an Alpaca farm not very far away from where we live, in St-Alexis, to meet with these exotic animals and to learn more about them. The owners were lovely and took us through the barn and answered all our questions about their animals. You can tell they love them and take good care of them. At first, the alpacas were a bit apprehensive and steered clear of us while making soft noises that sounded a bit like whining. Eventually they relaxed and some were willing to eat from our hands or to lay down and relax. I really fell in love with them and found them to be gentle and very soft. Later when I went to my in-laws house and was petting their cocker spaniel I understood why the alpacas had such an effect on me. My favorite girl, Mouf, has the same haircut and big black doe eyes as the alpacas!

The owners are not used to having knitters into their shop. They sell a lot of articles made out of alpaca yarn, but have very little yarn from their own flock, mostly because the owner himself spins his own yarn and although he's made a lot, he's not used to people wanting to buy it. I bought 100 g of loose fiber from one of their females, Sundae, who is a very nice rich amber color, and 200g of handspun yarn (I would think worsted weight) from one of their males Bogart, who was a very nice sandy color. I must say I am impressed with the man's spinning, it's really even and very well balanced. He says he's been spinning for 3 years now. I can't wait to try spinning the fiber. I am thinking of perhaps mixing it with some merino to make it stronger. Also, I would get more yardage out of my 100g if i mix it with something else. I haven't decided yet. Besides, My wheel is busy with the mixing of merino and angora rabbit at the moment. It's taking a long time because I need to hand card the fibers into rolags to spin it. It makes for very even and easy spinning, but the carding process takes longer.

The fair-isle sweater will soon be finished. I had hoped to finish it this week-end, but life happened. I also have two lighter projects on the go; a pair of work socks for R and a scarf for which I will also publish a free pattern. Hint: the pattern will be called "Dobby Scarf".

In other news, I will be scheduling some time off in September. We have found a nice cabin to rent in Trois-Pistole for a few days. It's right on the Saint-Laurence river and we have a nice sandy beach and some rocks to fish from in the front. I haven't made the reservation yet, but I will soon, as soon as we can agree on a date.

Happy knitting, or whatever else you like to do :)

Further Adventures in Sweater Knitting

2009-08-13T18:34:33Z

The plunge has been taken, the sweater has been undone, re-knit and is about to be put back together again. I sort of feel like Dorothy putting hay back into Scarecrow to make him whole again with this sweater. One thing is for sure, if this works and it's not too apparent that I've had to doctor this sweater, I will definitely have to visit the Wizard of Oz (local wine store) and claim my prize (a nice bottle of cool rosé wine). Here is a picture of what the sweater looked like after being undone:

First I had to pass a piece of yarn through the first round before the beginning of the Fair Isle work, then I cut the yarn about 2 rounds below that and unraveled the sweater until the sleeves and body became separated. I put each sleeve and the body on thread or needles and each in turn was unraveled further and re-knit with added stitches to make the underarm roomier. Then they were knit together again onto one circular needle and an added Fair Isle section was knit to give length and width to that first part of the chest and arms. I am now ready to graft the old part of the sweater with the new, as I would for the toe of the sock, to make the sewing seamless. This had better work or else I don't know what I'm going to do. Crying comes to mind.

Now on to the giant zucchinis (courgettes). Aren't they humongous?! I suspected my friend Alison had kryptonite in her garden when she presented me with them, but apparently that's what happens when the gardener goes on vacation and it pours all the time she is gone. I gave one to my mother in law, we fried a few slices of ours, and later I baked a delicious chocolate cake with the recipe Alison gave me. I grated the rest of the courgette and put it in the freezer for later desert making. My chocolate cake came out a bit different than A's, but still delicious. I changed some of the ingredients because my sister is allergic to dairy products, not intolerant like me, allergic, so we have to be careful not to kill her with our baking. I used soy milk instead of milk, dairy-free margarine instead of butter and dairy-free chocolate chips (they exist yes).

Also last week-end, we drove south to the little town of Varennes for a "wind" festival. There were lovely kites in the sky, games for children, loud music and many kiosks with art work. I got to meet Louise, who is a yarn dyer I've known for a couple of years and have designed patterns for, but never got to meet in person. She was lovely and she had so much yarn to sell, I was literally yarn struck! I only bought two rovings she hand dyed and called pumpkin juice and farfadet (below). I plan to spin them and use them with the yarn I am currently spinning to make a yoke cardigan for myself this winter. It's going to be per-ty!

Oh yes! I sold my spindles to my friend Nathalie yesterday. I wasn't going to use them anymore, I was sure about it. So I decided to find them a new loving home. Nathalie wants to spin herself some lace weight yarn and they will be perfect for her. Good luck Nat!

You Spin Me Round

2009-07-31T16:35:36Z

My my! How I love the spinning wheel. I couldn't wait for the stupid rain to stop to assemble my spinning wheel (and people think knitters are patient!) so Wednesday I put it together, all by my myself. I was very proud of my job too, until I started spinning. After ruining about 80g of pink merino top, I decided it was impossible my flyer hooks were supposed to face inwards, because I kept loosing the thread and making a tangled mess on the flyer. I looked at my instructions again and wouldn't you know it, I had installed the hooks on backwards. The pink merino became the waste basket's diner and the next day I tried again, this time using a blue faced Leicester roving in lovely stained glass colors. This time, it worked like a charm. I love it. This week-end if it's nice and sunny outside, the wheel will get one or two coatings of varnish. It will loose it's lovely wooden smell, but it has to be done if I don't want it to warp with time. I'm thinking this yarn will make a nice scarf perhaps, once it is plied.

I don't know what the week-end will hold. I am feeling very tired and am lost in my thoughts these days. I put it down to working too hard and going through one of those "self-questioning" periods. I don't dislike them, but I find it harder to interact with people around me when I feel like this and they notice it. It will pass. Perhaps I can spin this mood away, there's an idea! ;-) We are starting to talk about getting away for a few week-ends in September, perhaps this too will, as we say here, "changer le mal de place" (change the pain's location). We should have a button somewhere on our body to stop the thoughts from running around, a mute button for the brain, just to take a brake once in a while. I am thinking about renting a chalet and R would like to go fish for smelt in Rimouski.... we can do both these things at once. I have some research to do to find the best places to go. Maybe that too will change the color of my thoughts.

I'll throw this out into the universe, maybe someone with influence will hear me: some sunshine would be greatly appreciated this week-end, just a thought!

I Told You So!

2009-07-27T17:59:15Z

Yesterday my brother invited us to diner and I brought him the sweater I knit for him. He thought it was beautiful, he loved the colors, but when he tried it on, the underarms felt uncomfortable to him, which he says he also experienced with all the Dale of Norway sweaters he ever tried on. This makes me think that the yoke part of the sweater is too short and gets smaller too quickly. It's a good thing I hadn't woven all the ends of yarn in because I have this one less thing to do to fix the sweater now. I've already passed a needle underneath the colored yoke part (the last soft brown round before the start of the color work), and when I work up the courage to fix this (probably after a glass or two of something intoxicating), I will cut the yarn a round or two below the yoke, unravel the part up til the sleeves and body are joined, put the sleeves stitches on a piece of yarn, unravel the body for a few inches, re-knit it adding about 16 increases, rejoin with the sleeves (I may decide to undo those a bit too and add more stitches to them too), with the body again, knit a few rounds with the extra stitches, knit a round or two of decreases in there until I reach the initial number of stitches I had and graft the body and sleeves to the yoke. This should take care of the underarm tightness. I also noticed the collar was too high, so I'm going to undo it and bring it down a little.

If that doesn't work, I'm going to cut the front open (steek), add a button band and make myself a nice cardigan, and re-knit my brother a bigger sweater with the proper yarn weight this time.

This is my own fault, I did use a smaller yarn than what my pattern called for and I'm paying for it now, but it was a learning experience. I fought the knitting and the knitting won! Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice etc. (add you own cliché here - I deserve them all).

Better get back to work before my eyes fall on the beautiful sweater laying on the sofa and I start to hyperventilate.

Sweater Saga

2009-07-23T13:15:37Z

Here iz, zee sweator!

Not too shabby, eh?! I was feeling good about my sweater last night, until it became apparent that it was pretty narrow around the chest area. Why had I not noticed this before?! I was feeling a mix of emotions. First I was in denial, then I felt sad, then I felt angry, and then I took the darn thing by the neck and said "Buster, I won't cry over you, I'll make you pay for your lack of yield!" That's the attitude I feel a knitting warrior should always have towards un-cooperating woolen captives. Don't get down, get even! I was prepared to frog the whole thing (that is undo the knitting in non-knitter speak ) and re-knit it, until the sweater gave me a sad little look, all frumped up on the sofa. I decided to give it a second chance. So, without weaving in the ends, I let it relax in a bath of Soak soap and tepid water, then I used the spin cycle of my washing machine to take the water out.

When I spread the sweater out on a towel, it seemed to look better. I stretched the daylights out of it and was able to get a good enough width. I had measured a pullover that my brother likes to wear. It came to 45" for the chest, and I know it fits very loosely on him. I think once dried, this sweater will be 44 to 45" so that is good. Lengthwise, I had measured the body should be 19" from the hem to the underarms... my sweater stretched to 21" - yikes! I will not weave in the ends until L has tried his sweater on. That way, I'll be able to make any necessary adjustments if needed. I can certainly shorten the body if it's too long. My fear now is that the yoke will be too short, or that L won't like the colors or the business of the fair isle design. I know he likes these colors, I know he likes Dale of Norway sweaters, and I know he's not afraid to wear colors, but still, it's hard to design something for someone without them approving the choices you made. My boyfriend would definitely not wear this sweater, but L is a different story. I hope he likes it.

What gets me is that I did knit a swatch, so this measurement anxiety should not have occurred. But swatches are unreliable at the best of times. This pattern made me knit a flat swatch for a work done in the round. I should have been smart about it and knit a swatch in the round. Also, I had taken the time to wash and dry the swatch before measuring it, but even then, a little square of knitting does not behave the same way a heavy sweater does in the wash... why do we even bother knitting them if you can't possibly predict how a finished piece of knitting will look like until it is finished. With swatches you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, in my opinion.

The jury is still out on this project, but I am happy with the overall sweater. I spent a good 6 weeks working on it and it was a fun experience. The fair isle knitting could be better, but as this is my third fair isle project to date, and the largest, I was not expecting perfection. The Briggs and Little Regal yarn I used was lovely and the shade of soft heathered brown is so very nice, I will surely use it again. The bottom to top construction was a first for me and I really enjoyed it. I even threw in a few short rows between the shoulders to make the back ride up a bit and get a better fit, it's also a way to make the front of the sweater more obvious. I was able to use my Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle knitting in choosing the designs for the body and sleeves (someone told me it was a King Charles brocade) and for planing the fair isle designs for the yoke. That was so much fun, I can't wait to do it again.

Saturday R is driving me to Ottawa to pick up my spinning wheel, and to visit the city a bit. I'll take pictures and give you an account of our adventures soon. There is a 30% chance of rain in Ottawa on Saturday, so odds are we will have a lovely day.

Take care y'all! :)

Say What?!

2009-07-11T16:17:07Z

The title of this post will make sense in a few lines, wait for it.

I have been doing some research concerning my spinning wheel to better understand what sort of treatment I should give the wood pieces before assembling them. At first I only wanted to oil them, but I've since decided against oil because it needs too many coats to be effective and it won't do much to protect the wood against humidity, and goodness knows it's humid here, ask my bones. Also, oil has to be reapplied over time, whereas varnish is a once only job. So, I contacted a few cabinet makers in my area to see how much it would cost to give my wheel a thin coat of varnish. Only one answered his phone. He asked me to e-mail him a picture of my spinning wheel to see what it looked like. He answered this morning. Guess how much?! Three hundred dollars! SAY WHAT?! Is he mad?! I mean, I'm all for paying a professional for his skill, but that's taking it a bit far. I mean, he probably has a spray gun for that sort of work and I'm sure he can spray the pieces in very little time. I'm just going to get a spray can of varnish and do it myself for less than $10 and in one afternoon.

Last night I was a bad girl. I took the car and went to the Friday knit night with my friend A and we came home past midnight. Somebody tie me down, I am out of control ;-) When I came home everyone was in bed and asleep. The Friday knit meeting is at a Montreal yarn store called Effiloché. The shop keeper, Ginette, is a warm and friendly person and her shop is very inviting. There are couches and chairs to sit and knit and the walls are covered with all sorts of wonderful natural fiber yarns, no acrylic there. The shop is located on St-Hubert street, which has covered sidewalks over a few blocks, and is lined with shops of all kinds, but is known of old for it's bridal shops. In fact, my mother bought her wedding dress there for less than twenty dollars in the late 50s (she had very little money, but I think that was expensive back then). A year after the wedding the dress was cut up and sewn into a christening gown for all us children, then lent to a cousin who gave it away to someone else (the nerve of some people), never to be seen again.

This week-end the plaza is closed to traffic and is hosting a sidewalk sale, so people can walk down the street and shop while taking in the sun. The yarn shop had its furniture out on the sidewalk and we sat and knit from there. It was a lot of fun. Many people who walked by stopped to ask questions and left with leaflets containing information on the next knitting and sewing classes.

I only visited two shops while I was there and bought nothing. I did however leave with six balls of Cascade 220 Superwash to knit Roger some hats, mittens and neck warmers for next winter. When he works nights on snow removal, he often comes home to change and take a nap and I like to be able to throw his wet clothes in the dryer before he goes back into the cold. He was used to his mother's acrylic tuques and mittens and hated wearing such articles because it made him itchy and sweaty. I have showed him since how wonderful wool is for cold weather and he never leaves without his woolen gear in the winter now.

BROTHER'S SWEATER NEWS: I have 1 1/3 sleeves done, yay! I hope to be able to finish the second sleeve soon and get started on the fun part of the sweater. Unfortunately, I have work to do this week-end, so I can't spend all day knitting, therefore, the sweater will not be ready on the 14th. It's going to be a belated birthday present.

This week, I also emptied my spindles and plied the yarn they contained. I got these two mini skeins of about 100 yards each. I can"t wait to fill a whole bobin with 100 grams of roving.

Wishing you all a sunny week-end!

Once Upon A Time

2009-07-03T16:41:35Z

There was a castle-wheel.

My 38th birthday is coming soon. I thought I should get something I've been stalking on the internet for a long time, as consolation for my present living arrangements which prevent me from welcoming a pet into my home. In a way, this will allow me to pet some fur, but said fur will not ask for the door at all times of the day and night, steal our belongings to hide and chew on them and will not need house training!

When I started spindling, I knew I was in for a fast and furious tumble down the fiber obsession mountain. I'm hoping I've reached the bottom of it now, because I'm not getting sheep next that's for sure... maybe an angora bunny though!

I debated over getting the cheapest wheel I could find or spending a bit more and getting the one that makes me drool. I figured I might as well invest in the one I really fell in love with as we're going to spend a lot of time together. I picked the Ashford Traveller wheel. Mine is going to be
single drive and natural wood. I won't stain it as the one above, but rather just give it a nice wax coating and leave it natural. It's so pretty. I can't wait to sit outside and spin in the sun. I couldn't find a store that sold Ashford wheels locally, so I ordered from an Ottawa store. It's only a two hour drive away and it's such a lovely city, we can survive a day of sight seeing there :) When they receive it they will give me a call and when we have a free week-end, my man is going to drive us there. This store also has some lovely angora rabbit fibers (and angora rabbits), so I suggested to my man to get me some as a birthday present. He never knows what to get me, so I thought I might give him a very definite hint because subtle ones just fly by him ;-)

I feel completely self-indulgent, selfish and wasteful... and HAPPY! Now, I have to see to making some room for this baby somewhere!

In other news, knitting sessions have been short and sweet this week, which means I am still working on the body of my sweater, but I only have about 2 rounds to knit before I can set it aside and start on the sleeves. I am considering knitting both at the same time in magic loop, but I will have to learn how to do it first. I know the magic loop method but I've never knit two things at once with this method. I'm sure I can figure it out with whatever info I can find on the internet. It's supposed to rain this week-end, so I will have to stay in and knit... poor me! ;-)

My next project after Laurent's sweater is going to be finishing my cardigan, and then designing a scarf for fun. T is going to be happy to know this new project is HP inspired and involves fair-isle knitting... this is going to be fun and I'm sure you will want whatever I turn out once it's done. That's all I'm saying about it though, think scarf and Harry Potter. Another clue? This scarf will become all the rage at Hogwarts and I am sure will be banned by school authorities.

To all a lovely week-end!

IMPORTANT Public Health Message

2009-06-26T18:38:21Z

Never mind that... here's an update on my knitting!

I have been slacking off on my knitting schedule for the past three days. The main reason is that I have a massive amount of work to do and I'm really tired at night and don't pick up my needles. I suspect that's because the body of the wool sweater I'm knitting is becoming heavy and because it's hot and having something woolen on your lap on a hot night is not exactly fun.

I would hope to have this sweater finished for July 14th, which is my older brother's 51st birthday, but I doubt very much I'll make it. I still have about 4 inches of the body to knit, then I go on to the two sleeves, and then I put it all together and start the fair isle yoke pattern in soft brown, brown, green and cream. I can't wait to get to this fun part, and see if all the fiddling I did with the pattern's gauge and yoke design pays off. I'm pretty sure it will, and I admit I like the thrill of knitting without a net ;-)

So, without further ado, here is a picture or my progress so far:

You can't see it very well yet because the knitting is all scrunched up on the needle and the fabric has not been washed and relaxed yet, but there is a nice all over diamonds patter on the body, whici I will also repeat on the arms, up to the yoke. This was not part of the original pattern, but I felt it needed it to keep me sane and attentive. There's nothing worse than round upon round of stockinette stitch, it gets boring quickly.

I picked the colors for this sweater according to my brother's preference. I've never liked brown, but I must say I'm starting to really like it. The heathered pale brown is really lovely, makes me crave cinnamon for some reason. I must admit I never thought I would like brown as a substitute for grey, but it really IS nice.

At the top of the sweater, you can see a beautiful stitch marker made by my friend Alison. I really love the way she makes them. Not only are they beautiful, but the wire loop is perfectly snag-free and fits any size of needle. I'm always happy when I come across it and I think it's a great motivator to finish a round. I'm like a greyhound running after a bunny when I use this stitch marker. You can also see one of our tomato plants in the background. We've got buds!!! I so cannot wait to make myself a juicy toasted tomato sandwich fresh from the garden! I'll have to bake a bread especially for it. Yum!

So, that's me. I have to get back to my windmill and do some actual work, goodness konws there's plenty of it. I'm not complaining. I am grateful to be able to work at home and be my own boss, and I am very aware that a lot of people out there have lost their jobs and can't find any, but I must say I miss work-free week-ends. I hope I can have one next week because I'm really starting to show signs of stress. My left eye-lid has been jumpy for over a month. It's really annoying! I best prepare for the storm coming too. It hasn't started raining yet and already the electricity is playing up! Hope it doesn't go out.

I hope you enjoy a lovely week-end :)

Bonne fête Québec - Je t'aime

2009-06-24T16:28:42Z

Today is Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Québec's national holiday. In honor of this special day, I would like to present to you our symbolic national anthem, a most beautiful song of love and peace, written by poet extraordinaire Gilles Vigneault (and translated very quickly and not so well by me - there is nothing harder to translate than a poem, but you'll get the idea) for you to enjoy. It's the symbolic song that is sung each June 24th at the end of all festivals and shows, because we are not officially a country, but it speaks of the love of what we are and what we hope to be in the future: still ourselves. Interesting fact, Quebeckers do not sing "happy birthday to you" when it's someone's birthday, they sing the refrain of this song and add the person's name. For example: My dear Audrey, it is your turn, to let us speak to you of love" and it feels so good to have a group of people sing to you they love you, I can tell you :)

The time that we take to say : I love you

Is all that remains at the end of our days
The wishes we make, the flowers we plant
That we each harvests within ourselves
In the lovely gardens where time passes

People of the land it is your turn
To let us speak to you of love
People of the land it is your turn
To let us speak to you of love

The time to love each other, the day to say it

Melts like the snow at the touch of Spring
Let us celebrate our joys, celebrate our laughter
Our eyes where our gazes mirror each other
Tomorrow I shall be twenty again

People of the land it is your turn
To let us speak to you of love
People of the land it is your turn
To let us speak to you of love

The stream of days going by, stops today

and becomes a pond where all can see

their love reflecte in its mirror

To all those hearts I wish

there shall be time to live their hopes

People of the land it is your turn
To let us speak to you of love
People of the land it is your turn
To let us speak to you of love

Happy St-Jean to all who celebrate on June 24th!

Sunday Mischief

2009-06-07T19:09:40Z

I finally finished listening to the second audio book from the Twilight saga. I must say I was relieved to finish it and am not ready yet to continue listening to the series. The narrator of the story has a raspy voice that sometimes got on my nerves, the story is full of teen angst, and the writing is not stellar. I decided, instead of moving on to the third Twilight book, to start a new audio book series. The series is called The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. It's the first time I've had a male narrator and I'm liking it... perhaps a little too much ;-) Just as I was writing this, I decided to go look for the name of the narrator, only to find out that it is James Marsters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame (he was Spike)... now I understand the effect the story is having on me! I loved Spike :) Harry Dresden is the main character. He is a wizard-sleuth, and in this case he is helping the Chicago police investigate a bizarre murder which he is sure has been committed by magical means. This series promises to be very interesting and well written.

Also, I have been napping, washing clothes and plotting for a new sweater for my older brother. I will order the yarn for it tomorrow. I might also stalk a few apples at the market, drag them home, stab them, skin them, and drop them in a pie-shaped grave. I'll give you the recipe if it turns out well!

Summer Office

2009-06-05T17:44:36Z

It's finally sunny after days and days of autumnal temperatures and rain. Today is a comfortable 22°C/72°F and I will soon move to my summer office, as seen below. Pretty nice set-up, eh? I spent all afternoon there yesterday and really loved being in the sun and working, two things I never had the chance to combine before. I bought a new table top computer last year and soon after also went for a laptop. I'm really happy about it. I can move around the house and keep my internet connection, or go to an internet café and work from there. It's very liberating and motivating, to be able to change my work environment once in a while. Sometimes I get really sick of my office and need a change.

You can see in the back the little maple tree we planted last year when we found it growing underneath our front porch. It was just barely 2 inches then, look at it now! We also planted a second maple tree (different variety) and an elm in the front of the house. We used to have lots of tress around the house, but they got sick over time and we had to cut them down.

A few weeks back, I had written about spinning from a batt, wondering how to prepare the batt for spinning. Here is the batt in question. I bought it from an Etsy shop, mostly for the beautiful color, but also for it's name: Prince Humperdink. Do you remember the film "The Princess Bride", or the excellent book by Wiliam Goldman? It's one of my favorites, which reminds me, I'll have to ask the person I lent my DVD to months ago, to give it back! In any case, I did some research yesterday and found a most excellent tutorial on how to prepare a batt for spinning. It didn't work very well with this batt because mine was a sandwich of three different layers, but you'll get the idea, if like me you have no idea what to do with a batt. You can wath this video HERE. It's very well made.

Famous Prince Humperdink quote :

"Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan,

my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I'm swamped."

Hope you all have a wonderful week-end. I'm working for most of it, but I'll make sure to put something fun in it.

Fishless in Sainte-Émilie-de-l'Énergie

2009-05-27T17:48:37Z

My older brother invited us to a day of fishing on a trout lake a few weeks ago. We weren't thrilled to get up at 5 am to go there, but we did and we had a great time out on the lake. There were 5 of us, my brother, his son, his wife's uncle, Roger and I. We were on the lake from 8 am to 6 pm (Roger and I had our own row-boat) and not once did we even get a nibble at the end of the line. Neither did any of the other people on the lake pull out a fish either. We tried everything we could, but as there were no protruding rocks, and almost no shade on the lake, we figured the trout had escaped to cooler stream or was hiding at the very bottom of the lake.

This is my fishing method. You might say this is why I didn't catch anything, but others were actively fishing and I didn't see them taking anything out. I look horrible, I know, but it was cold and I had 3 sweaters on, plus a life vest, plus tons of bug spray and bla bla bla ;-)

It was very cool, but sunny and windy, which means the bugs were not as pesky as I had feared they would be. We tried as many spots on the lake as we could, but it was hard work for poor Roger. Thankfully he's not lazy like me and likes the exercise. After lunch, it became very windy and we went around a small island in the middle of the lake to seek shelter. We found an old wooden dock on the other side of the island, so we tied the boat to it and got off on the island to stretch our legs and enjoy some peace and quiet. My rowing-slave took a nap on the picnic table while I continued fishing from the dock (notice the facilities in the back).

There were a lot of birds on the island and they were very curious about us. One kind kept spying on us by walking on the ground and peering at us from underneath the tree branches. They were largish black birds with a shimmering royal blue/black head and sparkly black/green back. I couldn't get a picture of course. I saw other animals too. While on the lake, a duck with a bright yellow head flew very low over us, and after we were back on land, I was sitting in a swing when a black fox ran casually just a few feet away from me. I love close encounters of the furry or feathery kind.

We forgot to bring tackle with us (some fishermen we are!), so at one point I improvised. We didn't have those little lead weight thingies to bring our hooks to the bottom of the lake, so I took some of my Clover stitch markers to put some weight on the line. It worked pretty well, and I hoped the color would entice the fish to bite, but alas, it didn't.

Roger got to wear his new outdoor sweater for the first time. He really likes it, so I'm a happy knitter, despite the slight imperfections I know it holds (I did a terrible job of inserting the zipper on the collar). It will get a lot of wear, so I know he appreciates it. You can see better pictures of the sweater on my Ravelry project page (if you are a member).

So we have no fish to BBQ, but lovely memories of a sunny day in the woods to keep. We'll buy some fish next week-end for our feast :)

Warm at last!

2009-05-21T17:44:20Z

May is coming to a close and today has to be the first day it has felt remotely close to summer. What a relief! I was starting to suspect all that global warming stuff was a hoax and that we would get a second winter this year. We've had rain, wind, more rain and close to freezing temperatures for at least 4 weeks.

To celebrate the first springy day, I took my portable computer outside in the swing (with a table in the middle), phone, cold beverage etc. for a day of work in the sun. It's such a beautiful day, I'm really happy to be home and not stuck in a carpeted and heavily air conditioned office building. Did I mention it was windy? If I was on a sailboat instead of my back yard I would be halfway across to Europe by now. At least now the blue-jay vs sparrows fight has moved to another yard, it's quieter. The blue-jay tried to get the sparrow's eggs in our little bird house. The sparrows drove him away. Good for them!... scratch that, the little blue bastard's back!

In other tantalizing news:

We will soon be able to plant our tomato plants outside. They are close to a foot long now and smell wonderful. I know it may be weird, but I've always loved the smell of tomato plants.
I've finished knitting Roger's outdoor sweater for his birthday (tomorrow) and I've started a new one for myself. I was good this time. I made two swathes and washed them before I took the measurements. This sweater is going to fit me perfectly, or else!
I've made a decision concerning my health that I have great hopes will have a positive impact on my quality of life. It's not as bad as in my 20s, but it has flared up lately and I'm scared of going back to that bad, painful place again (nothing bad, just arthritis) and after researching the medication my doctor offered, I'm ready to try it. My appointment is in early July. the only way I will not take the meds is if he tells me they cost a fortune and are not covered by my insurance (there are such treatments out there, but I'm not sure about this one.)
We are getting up at 5 Sunday morning to go on a trout fishing expedition with my brother, nephew and my sister-in-law's uncle. Should be fun. I haven't been fishing in ages. I usually always catch the wrong kind of fish, let's hope I do better this time. If I don't I'll just nap at the bottom of the boat. Roger's in charge of the rowing, I'm going to prepare the fish, believe me I don't have the sweet end of the deal here.

Hope everyone enjoys a lovely week-end!

Up The Down Escalator

2009-05-14T18:23:27Z

Over the last few weeks, this is how I've been feeling, like I'm walking on a treadmill, not going anywhere, and feeling dizzy when I stop. Days just pass me by and I only notice the day has started when it's time to go to bed. It's not because of work, mind you. The last two weeks have brought a little work, but not a crazy load, so I've had time to knit, knit, read, and knit some more. Going outside was only an option for a few hours out of the afternoon as it's still pretty chilly here, today in particular. The source of stress has been the two small claims cases Roger has initiated for two clients who did not pay their bills last year. He's going to consult a mediator tonight about one of them, I hope it turns out well for him. Thankfully his father will be going with him, which is a comfort to me because Roger highly respects his opinion, and also I know he can keep his son's temper in check. I'm sure he'll do well though. My man is very articulate and has a long memory, unlike me who forgets things as soon as they have passed. Also, I have't had time to do my taxes... I'm late as usual, but they won't put me in jail for it, don't worry. Still, this is playing with my nerves. I promised myself this year I would do them on time. The gov probably owes ME money, so I'm not worried, just disappointed in myself.

Three weeks ago, Roger took me to our favorite restaurant in Trois-Rivières as a thank you for all the work I put into his company (I'm the secretary/bookkeeper/receptionist). We had lovely "moules & frites" at Le Lupin (hmmm, num num!) and a nice walk by the pier. On the way there, we stopped on the side of the highway where a site was built by the Parks & Forests ministry to allow people to observe the migratory birds feeding in the submerged Spring fields. There were thousands of white geese when we were there. It was so funny to hear all of them quacking at the same time and flying into beautiful, sinuous formations.

I received an order of beautiful yarn from Briggs & Little two weeks ago. It was for a coat-sweater for Roger and a fair-isle sweater for me. Roger picked black, white and turquoise for his sweater. He wanted nothing to do with the scandinavian design I had picked for the sweater as it was "girly" in his opinion (men!) so he's getting boring stripes. I spiced them up a little by using the random stripe generator program on the Web. The yarn calls for 7.5 mm needles (us 10 3/4), which is an impossible size to find it would seem. I did find some bamboo needles in that size and 40 inches long at Effiloché and I was able to knit my sweater with them, but I ended up needing a lot of elbow grease to push the stitches up on the left needle. Hideous bamboo needles!!! The next time I knit with this gorgeous bulky yarn I'm going to use 8mm metal needles and have a better time of it. I was knitting the sweater in the round, top down, and flying through it because there was no special stitch, just stockinette all the way. In 5 days I had the whole body and one sleeve completed, but I had to take a break because I was getting very strange shooting pains up my thumb and feeling a lot of fatigue in my left wrist and hand. It's not just the knitting, I suspect it's also arthritis because my whole body has been suffering the effects of Spring lately. The sweater is going to stay on hold for a few days yet. I'll leave it be for now and have it done by the 22nd, which is Roger's birthday.

To rest my wrist, I finished knitting the Slouch Rib cardigan using double strands of Knit Picks wool of the andes and my first handspun yarn for the horizontal garter stitch stripes. It's a beautiful cardi and it's very warm. I still haven't taken a picture of it yet, but I will soon and you will be able to see it in my Ravelry projects page. Maybe I'll put one up here too.

Since then I am spending my knitting time with Elijah. I've knit this little elephant twice before and I decided to use some of my leftover yarn to knit as many as I can before the end of the year. It's a way to make room for more yarn and get rid of orphaned balls of yarn. I hope to have enough of them to bring to the Montreal Sainte-Justine hospital or the Cité de la Santé (nearer to me) to give to the pediatrics ward. I hope they will cheer up a few sick children there. They don't take very long to knit (3 or 4 nights in front of the tv) and only require about 1 or 2 50 g balls of yarn). If I can knit a few of them between each larger project, I think I can manage a dozen or two of them before the year is out.

In other non-knitting related news, I just got a large contract with a Manitoba furniture store (Ikea-like). My colleague Isa and I will translate their in-house management and sales point software. This should keep us busy for a few months, not to mention that more of my clients have warned me that they will be sending quite a bit of work my way this summer. It's a good thing we always take our vacation in the fall! Despite that I have a a getaway plan for my birthday in July. This year it's on a Sunday, and on that Sunday the Toronto Blue Jays are playing the Tempa Bay Rays. I'm saving that week-end to go have myself a small private "stitch n'pitch" day. Oh, and not to mention the Toronto area knitting stores I can visit!

I should get some work done now before all this knitting talk makes me relapse into knitting mode. Toodles!

Gauge Bandit On Destash Rampage

2009-04-23T14:38:56Z

It started with two beautiful ceramic buttons shaped like green leaves. I bought them from an Etsy shop called Muddymuse last year, thinking I would use them for a design inspired by a sweater I saw in a Miss Marple episode. At the same time, I bought 22 skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Mink Heather because the soft green heather I wanted was out. Looking back, I could have waited for the color I wanted to be available again because this yarn has been sitting in my stash for months and months.
Judge: To the charge of "reckless impulse buying" how does the defendant plead?"
Me: "Guilty" your honor.
I've been wondering what to do with it too because I found the mink color very drab. Nice, but not eye catching at all, and me likes colors! Also, the design idea was starting to fade in my mind and I completely lost interest in it. But the pretty buttons still held a special place in my heart. So yesterday, having only a second sock on the needles and waiting for a wool order from Briggs and Little to knit Roger a thick coat, I decided to go look for a cardigan pattern to knit with my large quantity of drab yarn. I also decided it would be a pattern that called for bulky yarn so I could use my worsted yarn doubled to make it disappear faster.

So, I came to the Slouch RIb Cardigan pattern and decided it was pretty enough, if you didn't pay attention to the very ugly blouse the model is wearing, I also had a brilliant idea that would make the sweater a bit more interesting too. I thought, what if I used some of my first hand spun yarn to knit the garter stitch ridges at the bottom and top of the body and on the cuff of the sleeves? Now that would add some color to the design AND match my leaf buttons beautifully!

So off I went to knit a gauge, only to discover the biggest needles I owned were 10 1/2 straight needles made of red plastic that belonged to my mother and that I remember playing "pretend knitting" with when I was not even in school. Ok I thought, I can use these I guess, until I receive the 10 1/2 needle tips I ordered from Knit Picks a week ago. I haven't knit with straights in a very long time, maybe I'll enjoy it. I didn't get gauge of course because even with my biggest needles, the two worsted weight strands of yarn were still finer than the yarn called for in the pattern. I made a few calculations and decided to go ahead with the finer gauge but use the largest size offered in the pattern to get something that would fit me. I also decided to knit both fronts and the back at once up to the under arms because I hate seaming. Do you see where this is going? It wasn't long, with 174 stitches crammed onto one straight needle that I remembered why years ago I forsake them for circular needles. After one hour of knitting I was getting shooting pains in my forearms. Then, stupid me, I remembered I had two sets of Denise needles I never use. "Why don't I use them anymore?" I think. I did buy them at the time because I had no idea of the existence of Knit Picks and they were famed on various web sites for being easy to use for people like me who have arthritis in the hands. So I transfer my stitches to my long Denise circular needle and the change in weight alone is making me marvel at them and how wonderful they are. I'm thinking knitting with straight needles was just what I needed to appreciate my Denise needles again. It only took a few rows fo rme to remember why I hated my Denise needles. Yes they are light and the cable doesn't kink, but the stitches don't slide very well on them because they are plastic and the cable is almost as fat as the needle so you have to work very hard to push them up and you're constantly doing so because they don't come on their own. I've knit feverishly since last night and I have the 4 inch cuff, the hand spun ridge and some of the stocking stitch body already started, but I am paying for it this morning. My wrists and hands are not in perfect working order, thanks to all the knitting gymnastics I did last night.

Kint Picks needle, get here fast. I've fallen off the Knit Picks wagon and I can't get up!

Why do simple when you can do complicated, right? I could have read a book! ;-) Oh well, at least the cardi is going to be beautiful and I can't wait to wear it. I always have a little woolly something nearby because even in summer here, it can get chilly at times, especially in the evening; not to mention people have air conditioning in their houses and in all the shops. I hate AC. We are cold enough in the winter, why make it cold in the summer too! At least if they kept it at a reasonable temperature, but no, they make it freezing cold.

OK, I'm done ranting. Gotta do some work around here, crack the whip on this employee who is wasting time writing about her knitting in her blog on company time :)

Let them eat cake!

2009-04-22T14:48:17Z

Actually, Marie-Antoinette never said these famous words. I saw Sophia Coppola's movie about her with Kirsten Dunst last week and I loved it. The costumes were magnificent and re-visiting Versailles was fantastic. It's such a beautiful place. Now why am I talking about cake? Because I made a delicious one yesterday :) I forgot to take a picture of it. My mother-in-law had her 65th birthday yesterday and she had no cake, so I baked her one. She complained last saturday that she hated store bought cake and although she had made a strawberry shortcake for her daughter that day (who was turning 30), that said daughter was too busy to bake her a cake in return. She said all she wanted was a simple vanilla cake with vanilla icing. Not complicated I thought, I can do that! I found a recipe for the cake and icing on a Quebec french cooking web site and I will make sure to commit the recipes to my "for keeps" recipe notebook. Below is a translation of both recipes if you are interested. I've baked vanilla cakes before, but this one really turned out moist, fluffy and tasty.

White Cake

2 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour (sifted)
3 tea spoons baking powder
1 tea spoon salt
1 3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
3 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tea spoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup milk (at room temperature)

Preheat oven at 350°F (180°C) - in a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar - in another bowl and with a mixer, mix the eggs, shortening and vanilla extract until liquid is light and airy (there will be small chunks of shortening still) - add liquid mixture to dry mixture and mix adding milk gradually. - Mix for a few minutes to make the mix light and fluffy. - Pour into two 9 inch round pans or one circular pan with a hole in the middle, or a rectangular 9 x 13 pan, your choice. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until sides separate from the pan and a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

7-Minute Icing

1 egg white
1 cup sugar
1 tea spoon corn syrup
1/4 cup cold water
1 tea spoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 tea spoon baking powder

Heat up a double-boiler, when it boils bring the heat down to medium - Place the first four ingredients in the top pan and mix with a mixer for 7 to 10 minutes inside the pan, until mixture peaks (much like beating egg whites). - Remove from heat. - Add last two ingredients and mix in with the mixer. - Spread icing over cool cake.

The icing was about the same texture as spreadable marshmallow. I really loved this simple cake and I'll be sure to make it again for Roger's birthday because he loves vanilla-vanilla cake too. I decorated it with strawberries, but any other fruit would do too.

Finally Friday!

2009-04-17T16:27:29Z

It's been a long week, and I have high hopes of having a work-free week-end. I was supposed to go to me favorite yarn shop in Montreal tonight for knit night, but I just don't feel like driving there. My friend A, who lives nearby and also was supposed to go doesn't feel like it either, so we decided to stay in and watch a movie at her house instead. I like compromise :) So it's going to be a beer, popcorn and movie knit night tonight :)

I can still have Roger drive me to the yarn store tomorrow and I can pick out shell buttons for my summer cardigan then, and we can go to the airport after to watch airplanes land. We have made this outing before, and it's always fun for both of us. I get to spend some time in a yarn shop, then Roger gets to watch his airplanes while I knit. I know, to some people these activities might seem an absolute waste of time, but we like it, so "to hank" with everyone else ;-)

I have sad news. My betta fish Framboise is dying. I've had him for 14 months only and I've tried everything to cure him of the infection he had when I bought him, but the infection is finally wining. I'm not going to get another fish after he is gone. I'll just clean the equipment and give to a friend of my sister's who is a real aquarophile and will put it to good use. I'm obviously not a good one. It really makes me mad because the pet shops don't treat these animals very well, and then you buy them out of pity, and they end up dying because an aquarium is not a good environment for them as it's artificial, and it's very hard for us to control and make it safe for them. You practically have to have a masters degree in chemistry to get good aquarium water. So, after all the meds and the water changes, I'm ready to see my little red fish go to that great rice paddy in the sky where he will get to swim all he wants and look for good hideouts.

On a more positive note, I am getting really comfortable with my spindle and really loving it now. It's a great spindle, and never having spun on any other kind, I cannot confirm that it really is a cadillac among spindles, but I can certainly say that sometimes I feel like it's singing when it spins. Sometimes I feel a melodious tremor in my elbow as the spindle is spinning perfectly stable underneath my hand, and the slight "shhh" I hear from the wool as I draft it really make for a wonderful and relaxing experience. My knitting is feeling neglected this week because whenever I've wanted to take a break from work, I've gone for the spindle instead of it. I'll make it up to my knitting needles this week-end and make sure I work hard to finish my cardi. I only have the last short sleeve to knit and the collar and button bands.

Above is a picture of my latest yarn. The African violet is my mothers. I could have easily spun another 20 grams onto the spindle (it's easier to pack more on there when you are able to draft skinnier yarn) but I was too curious to see what the yarn would look like once it was plied. I really love it, the only problem is that I am now spinning and plying DK yarn, and the other yarn I want to use for the cardigan I am envisioning is worsted weight. Uh-oh! I don't know yet if I'll decide to get some fingering yarn to use double with the handspun to get the same weight as the worsted, or if I will simply get some DK weight yarn to finish the body of the cardi (the handspun is only for the yoke of the cardigan)... I could try to draft thicker yarn, but I can't control that just yet. This thickness is really what I am comfortable with. I could try that Navajo triple plying technique, but it looks so complicated! This will need more thinking and experimenting I think.

Happy week-end to all!

Happy Easter

2009-04-13T17:50:10Z

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter week-end. Yesterday we went for a nice drive in the country side. I love to watch the houses, animals and the forest roll by my window. It was bitterly cold though, just a few degrees shy of 0°C, but the sun was bright, which is why we were out in the first place. We saw a few villages we will further explore on a day when we make it out sooner and when everything is not closed because of a holiday.I plan on going to see the tulips festival in Ottawa in May, maybe go see those pretty Landrum spinning wheels in a wool shop I found on the internet... just to look! ;-)

On the knitting front, I have finished the second front of my cardi, I only have two short sleeves, collar and button bands to knit left, and pretty buttons to buy to decorate the finished piece. This week I'm going to place an order to Briggs and Little to knit Roger a sturdy work sweater-coat and also for some yarn to go with the yarn I already have to knit a fair isle sweater for myself. I've already got Roger's sweater all mapped out. It's going to be a top down raglan, but with a colar opening in the front, just a few inches long, to which I am going to add a short zipper. The color is going to be black, and at the point where the arms are put on hold to knit the body in the round, I am going to work a fair isle design with white and turquoise as the complementary colors on a black background. I will work the same fair-isle band on the sleeves, and do corrugated ribbing on the collar, wrists and waist bands. Oh, and the yarn is going to be bulky, so it's going to be thick and warm.

Here's a preview of the sweater, but I promise the real thing is going to be much nicer :) I might do a design too on the plain parts - a waffle stitch perhaps, something simple, but that will add texture to the fabric.

Runaway

2009-04-11T18:38:16Z

Roger was called away to go help his friend André clear out some of his land in the country. I could have tagged along, kept to the house and knit, go for a quiet walk in the woods, but I decided to stay home and do some work because my client sent me extra work last night at 11:30!!! I don't get this, K, my contact at this company can be at the office, sending out work on a Friday night at 11:30! K, you need to talk to your boss, or not connect to the office network from you house, really! I didn't reply because I don't want her to think I check my messages on what I consider the "week end", and to think I'm available 24/7 like she is. I'll answer, as a courtesy on Monday (it's EASTER) and reassure her that I can get her documents done for early the next week. The men will enjoy being together without me, and have the liberty of saying all the naughty things men are wont to say when there are no women to make big eyes at them when they tell dirty jokes.

In the meantime, I decided to get a move on the documents I'm already doing for her and that need to be sent out early next week. Now to make things spicier, one of my brothers called to say he and his dragon lady would be coming over for a visit. If it was just my brother I would have stayed, that is if I hadn't had any work. But after 30 years of knowing my sister-in-law, I still haven't found a way to appreciate her (my brother started dating her when I was 8 and even then she was horrible to me), to be honest I've given up many years ago. When she comes to our house, I find a way to make myself scarce. Also, knowing my mother, she'll find something noisy for my brother to do around the house. Last time they came over, she had him replace a broken tile in the upstairs hallway (try concentrating with that going on over your head). So to be able to enjoy a stress-free afternoon of work, I took my portable computer and drove to the nearest Second Cup coffee shop for a wi-fi connection and all the cake and ice tea I can take in one afternoon. On the down side, the Bee Gees are coming out the speakers, but none of the people here are my snobbish sister-in-law and no one is doing tile work. Actually, the difference here is that no one wants anything from me and I can be do my thing without outside interruption.

I can work here. Now let's get cracking!

Have a nice one everyone!

UPDATE: 1 1/2 hour later and I've reviewed this week's work and I'm ready to attack the last two documents. I should come here more often! The apple and blueberry cake was delicious. I think I'll get a nice latte next and a cookie. I know, life is hard that way sometimes ;-P

Spinning Milestone

2009-04-09T22:39:54Z

Last night I finished spinning the first 8 ounce (100 gr) roving I bought. Woohoo! I have other rovings waiting in the wings as well (I started stashing some already - I know, don't bother praying for me), but I was keeping them for when I would get better, spending time only with this darker green and blue roving. To experiment, I took the one I thought at the time was the least colorful, but the more I spent time with it, the more I grew to love all the tones of green and blue and sometimes a bit of yellow that passed through my fingers. I'm sure each new roving I play with will become my new favorite.

So my experiment started with separating my roving into 4 pieces of 25 grams, more or less, to see if yardage changed as I progressed through my learning experience. The results are astonishing to me, especially between the second skein and the third one. I went from 60 yards to 90 yards! This means I am getting better at controlling the "slurbs" (thicker tufts of untwisted wool) and able to spin my yarn thinner with practice. My only concern is that I want to knit a sweater with this yarn and the inconsistency of the thickness of the yarn means I will have to use more than one needle size to knit a consistent sized yoke with this yarn. Also, I have another concern and perhaps someone can tell me if I will one day be spinning invisible yarn? Roger thinks I will soon be spinning sewing thread, if this goes on, I tend to agree!

I've had the best results using the "park method", where you give your spindle a spin and then rest the handle between your knees and run the twist up the roving. My spindle is a bit of the heavy side I think, and that's why my merino kept snapping off, because the spindle was too heavy for the fiber. Also, the more yarn you spin onto the spindle, the heavier it becomes. With this method I don't have to worry about the weight so much and only watch out for the amount of fiber I let into the twist.

After preparing the last mini skein last night, I started on another merino roving. This one is in shades of magenta, pink and burgundy. I can't wait to see what it will look like when it is plied. Did I mention I love plying?! It's so much faster and it's so much fun to see what the colors do together when both strands of wool twist together.

Today I received my order from an Etsy shop. I ordered two things from this roving dyer on Etsy. One was a batt of lovely cream and purple merino titled "Prince Humperdink" (a character from The Princess Bride, a favorite film of mine), and another in tones of green, yellow and white called "Lucky Leprechaun". I originally ordered this wool in March, but after three weeks of waiting, I contacted the seller, who lives in the NE of the US, to ask if this was normal. Of course it wasn't and we soon realized that my order had been lost. This wonderful lady offered to send me another shipment for free. I wanted to pay her, but she wouldn't hear of it! Well I received it finally this morning and I just had to stop working for a while because I couldn't help but to fondle the wool. The Prince Humperdink roving is actually a batt. I've never worked from one before and I must say I am puzzled. Oh, I should say this batt is amazingly beautiful. It's a heavenly wool sandwich. In the middle there is superwash, white merino wool, then a layer of sparkly silver fiber, then on both sides of the batt, layers of gorgeously soft purple wool. It is princely indeed! Now what I don't know is how to separate the wool. Before spinning, do I detach all layers at once lenghtwise? I don't see any other way to get al fibers together so I can spin them at once. Oh, and CJ, the owner of ExtremeSpinning, added about 25 grams of angora yarn and a sachet of lavender. I was really taken away by her presentation and her fantastic wool. I will definitely visit her shop again. She moved her Etsy shop to the internet if you want to have a look at her beautiful yarns HERE.

On a less ecstatic note, I lost my glasses :( The last time I saw them was Monday and I really have no idea what happened to them. If I can't locate them by next Monday, I'm going to have to get new ones. Grrr! In the meantime I'm wearing an old pair that is really big compared to the ones I've been wearing for the past 5 years. I don't care what I look like, these are the "spare" glasses, they are not to be pretty ;-) They are for driving without running people over.

I touched the Titanic

2009-04-08T20:31:41Z

Monday I took the day off to spend with my sister and her friend who was visiting from the UK. We spent the rainy day in Montreal's underground city to avoid going from one point to the next outside as it was raining all day. Aside from having lunch and doing a bit of shopping, we visited an exhibition called "TITANIC - The Artifact Exhibition".

I didn't know what to expect when we got there, but I was really surprised when I saw all the things that were recovered from the bottom of the sea 70 odd years after the tragedy. I really didn't think there would be much more left than oddly shaped pieces of metal that had been eaten by the sea. Was I ever wrong!

They start you off by giving you a personalized boarding pass, with details of a person who actually boarded the ship in 1912. At the end of the exhibition, you get to find out if your alter ego was rescued or lost. The whole exhibition is given a lot of personal touches with survivor testimonies, quotes of things that were witnessed or heard after the accident and the sinking of the boat, pictures, audio commentaries, personal effects belonging to identified passengers and their life stories. The most amazing thing is that so many objects were perfectly preserved. I never imagined things made of paper would have survived, but they did. There were music sheets, bank notes, jewellery, leather articles, fully preserved pieces of clothing, a perfume sample case complete with samples and still fragrant (smelled like citrus), wash room articles and sinks and toilets, mirrors, pictures, eye glasses that look new, and so many more articles that you would never guess crashed thousands of feet at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean and survived decades in cold water filled with metal-eating bacteria. Apparently it is the leather that saved most personal items. The curing process used to make leather apparently makes the leather unsavory to those bacteria and therefore all things contained in sealed leather cases and suitcases was untouched. The dishes of course are not comestible and remained untouched, except for a few that had their coloring removed by the salt water. There was also a piece of the ship's haul that we were allowed to touch. If felt strange to touch this piece of metal that belonged to the exterior of the Titanic, it felt infused with the tragedy somehow.

I found out at the end that my Rosa Abbott had survived the sinking of the ship but her teenage sons hadn't. That made me sad for the rest of the day. Poor woman. To read her biography, you can go here.

In the end, it was a very interesting experience, and I can say that I touched the Titanic. How many people can say that?!

Treats from Tennessee

2009-04-03T15:06:14Z

I participated in the Regional Yarn Swap on Ravelry and today I received my parcel from my upstream partner, Sharon in Tennessee. Just the name of that state takes me to a far away, beautiful land. Someday I'll travel to the South of the United States. So far I've only seen a bit of the North-Eastern side, and no matter how beautiful it is, it's not very different from where I live.

Now the goal of the swap was to send your partner yarn and other goodies you saw fit, from your little corner of the world. Sharon works in a yarn shop, but she tells me she had a hard time finding local yarn, but did she ever find great yarns! Here are my goodies:

Isn't it an amazing haul?! I feel so spoiled - a milion thank yous Sharon!!! The hand spun yarn at the top is to die for, it's so soft I'll have to find a way to use it in a sweater as an accent yarn. The Sport weight yarn has some beautiful colors in it and it's so soft, it's screaming "make mittens" to me. The sock blank is absolutely fascinating too. I've never knit from one, so it's going to be a new and excitting adventure in sock knitting for me. The colors are absolutely up my alley! I've already had a Goo Goo cluster (not the breakfast of champions, I know!) but it was wonderful (peanuts, caramel, marshmallow and chocolate, all the vitamins a girl needs!). The little round stitch markers are just too cute and seem to be snag free, the Namaste bag is a perfect project bag for warm summer months and the little bracelets read "We Knit Neighbors Together", which is a great motto for a yarn snop - wish I could visit :)

Thank you again, so much! You've made an ordinary day absolutely fantastic!

A better week

2009-04-02T16:55:01Z

I've had a less stressful time this week. My workload was not so crazy and I was able to do nice things, like bake bread, spin a little, finish my Star Trek themed fingerless mittens (with pattern) and start a new project, this one for myself. I have a lot of stashed yarns in enough quantity to knit quite a few sweaters, so I'm making it my mission to knit those sweaters before buying more yarn. I'm not saying that I will not buy any yarn, but I'll slow down on the spending and use what I've got stashed away. I tell you, it's a sign of a dwindling economy when knitters are forced to dig into their voluminous stash to knit ;-) But that's what stashes are for I think, no? Put a little yarn away for a rainy day is my motto :)

So my current project is the Hey Teach summer cardi from last summer's Knitty magazine. I'm knitting it with Knit Picks Comfy yarn in Cypress (dark green) and at a smaller gauge than what the pattern called for. I don't know, but I found the knit fabric way too loose according to the pattern's gauge and I feared the sweater would strech like a "son of a muggle" when washed, and also because I didn't like the looseness of it. Although I did not enjoy my experience of Knit Picks Shine line of cotton yarn, I'm really enjoying the Comfy yarn. I found the Shine, which is a 100% cotton, to be too heavy, and the 25% acrylic in the Comfy yarn is making all the difference. The fabric is light and airy and I think teh Comfy yarn won't pill as much as the Shine yarn because of the acrylic too. I'm almost finished with the back piece and I started knitting it Monday, so I'm sure I'll be finished in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to have something new and feminine to wear for spring. Some would say I should go to the store and get something new, but what's the fun in that? It's a quick project, I love that!

I have until the end of the month to finish putting our expenses together for our respective accountants. Roger's accounts are the longest to prepare because he has so many expenses in his work. Mine are easy. I hope we get a return this year. I'm hopeful for myself, but Roger had some problems with a few clients last year who didn't pay him and that will hurt him. He's going to court for two bad payers and waiting to see where things go with a third. In his line of work, when a dishonest client doesn't pay, it puts him in trouble because he has to buy materials to work and he becomes indebted if they don't pay. Whereas if some one doesn't pay me, I just lost my time, which is frustrating, but has no very dramatic effect. Too bad I'm not a witch, because those dishonest ex-clients of his would be walking around with a serious case of running athlete's foot, or something equally nasty.

I've been enjoying a cute series on the Web for the past week. It's called The Guild. It's really funny, and because the episodes are so short, it's a great way to spend a few minutes and take a break during work hours. Speaking of which, I have to get back to it.

Toodles!

Almost Perfect

2009-03-29T21:17:15Z

... way to spend a rainy Sunday.

Slept in late, knit a bit while listening to two chapters of the first novel of the Discworld series (The Color of Magic), washed two loads ot clothing, baked a beautiful loaf of half and half bread (white and whole wheat), watched a chick flick (Ghost Town) and cried at the end. Now back upstairs to see what I can put together for diner. Hope Roger makes it home soon.

I knew this would happen!

2009-03-20T12:53:05Z

I knew if I ever fell into spinning, there would be no turning back. That's why I resisted the urge to try for so long. Last night, after a long day's work, I decided I needed to relax and disconnect, and instead of going for my knitting, I went for my spindle. So, under the evil glint coming from the sock I have on the needles, I sat down to spin. The effect was magical. I felt after just a few minutes all stress drain out of me and be replaced with the joy of feeling the yarn in my hands and looking at its pretty colors.

Over the last two weeks I've practiced some more with the natural merino I had on hand and things were not going well. The merino was very hard to draft and it often broke off. Last night I decided I was tired of this yarn, and that I should take out the pretty hand painted yarn I bought from an Etsy shop. I thought I might as well enjoy something pretty if I'm going to fail over and over again, and what's the use of stashing the good stuff away if I'm not going to use it? There is more to be found out there, right? :)

The pretty hand painted yarn I have is also merino, but wouldn't you know it, I think the color in it makes it stronger... or perhaps it's just an illusion, but I've been doing much better with this roving. Last night I was able to draft about 10 grams of yarn, or even less than that. Because I'm insecure about the amount I can spin on my spindle, I stopped when I had just a small amount of yarn. I'm using the baby steps method. I'm always afraid the yarn will break off where I've spun it too thinly, or that it will become a tangled mess when I try to roll it on my ball winder. After I had an amount I was satisfied with, I decided to stop for the evening. This morning, very early, I had to be up so I finished what I started over coffee. I balled the yarn, then plied it using the inside and outside of the ball at once (a technique I learned on YouTube). I had tried previously with the brown yarn that came with the spindle and had had good results.

So I went from this

To this:

To this:

Thank you Sandie for your advice on what to do once the yarn is plied to set the twist. I tied some yarn ends around 2 or three places on the skeins, gave them a hot bath with a bit of soap, squeezed the water out gently, fill my basin with more hot water and added a tbsp of vinegar and gave the yarn a second bath, used a towel to take out the excess water, then set it out to dry on my laundry room clothesline. It worked perfectly!

Now I'm not very productive for now, but I found plying so much easier than the first draft, AND I found drafting easier this time around too. I'm sure now that I will get the hang of this, and be able at one time to produce larger skeins. These two are minis. The brown is about 9 yards and the green about 14 yards. I'm nowhere close to knitting a whole sweater out of my hand spun yarn, like the Yarn Harlot did (she knit a gorgeous February lady sweater in red toned yarn that she spun herself). Of course you know what I'll be wanting next, right? A spinning wheel to do this faster and make larger quantities of yarn. I know, I know. I'm a goner!

Happy week-end everyone!