Blocking = Magic

Hey, remember this top?

It's from the VK Spring/Summer 2005, and I made one......

When I made it last year, I tried it on and it looked terrible. I was convinced that I was going to have to rip it out and add some short rows for the ladies in front.
I picked it up the other day to start frogging (with summer coming and all), but realized I have no clue where the leftover yarn was, if there even was any. How can you add short rows, if there is no yarn to add?

So, I thought I might try blocking it, just to see what happens.....
Turns out it ain't so bad! I'm going to wear it to work today to see how it holds out. The crochet edging seems to have a really strong desire to curl though....

I'll give you all the deets later, but now I must go and drink coffee.....

Scottish Girls Don't Frolic So Well....

I went to the DKC Knitters Frolic yesterday. I went with Brenda, and met up with Katherine and Elizabeth.
I was prepared, I had "The List", I had cash, I had a budget. But it seems I am just too friggin' cheap. I bought one thing. A skein of lace weight yarn called "Zephyr". It's a pretty green colour, and I'm hoping to get two scarves out of it, but I have to find a lace pattern I like.

There were so many beautiful yarns (I've been having erotic dreams about HandMaiden Sea Silk), but nothing was really on sale, or a great deal, so I just didn't get it. Maybe because it's all available in my LYS's? Maybe because I keep thinking about all the bills I have to pay? Maybe I'm a chicken? Or maybe it's just my Scottish heritage coming through. Who knows.

But I certainly don't regret it. We went for a nice brunch at the Sunset Grill instead, and I can likely get all the yarns I was coveting at the Sheep.

So was it a good day? Yes, I wasn't at work and I got to know Brenda and Katherine a little better. How can you knock that?!

Everything I need to Know in Life, I Learned from Weight Watchers

Yup, 3.5 pounds lost (as of Monday), and a few life lessons.....

1. I love junk food. In fact, I love it so much, I want to marry it. Do you think it will do my taxes?
2. I drink a lot. I can drink my entire day of points, and my flex points, in one sitting, and still hold a conversation.
   
3. As much as I would like to believe, one cannot live on Guinness alone.
4. The fact that I have to change the above if I want to fit into my jeans again makes me sad. But that's life.
   

The Beach

It's official. I live in the Beach, not the Beaches, as I have so ignorantly called them for the last few years!

Whew!

My taxes are done, and filed!

I hate doing my taxes. I had gotten pretty good at whipping them off, but this year I had the whole Mary Kay business thing to deal with. Ugh.

Anyway, if they're done correctly, I should get enough back to pay down a little bit of debt, AND do a little bit of shopping!

Everybody Love a Parade!

I totally forgot I had my camera until near the end of the parade, so I missed all the good stuff.
The Beaches (or "Beach", depending of what side you're on) has an Easter Parade every year. This year they added a Doggie Parade to it. Way too cute! I want a dog. But, of course, I have no pics.


These are my boys. I love them. I want to be a gay man in my next life. Who else could you have more fun with at an Easter Parade?

Happy Easter

I don't have much to say today, but thought I'd write something anyway, just in case you missed me.

We had two showings of the Celestine Prophecy as a fundraiser this week, and it went ok. Not my favourite movie, but it was interesting, in a pushy religion kinda way.

I did go and see"Thank You for Smoking" on Friday night, and that was hilarious! My brother is a big smoker, and he is always explaining all these crazy reasons why smoking is good for society (mostly economic, and likely true), so it was extra funny to watch it with him. The fact that there really are lobbyists who spin all this stuff about smoking is just crazy!

Thursday evening we tried to have our first patio night of the season, but after the sun went down, it got cold pretty quick, so I wasted a bunch of my points indoors.:-(

As for points..... the weight watchers seems to be pretty easy, I usually end the day under my target points, but I can get so obsessive about stuff, I'm likely starving myself. Tomorrow is my first "weigh in", so I'll keep you updated.

I've almost finished the left front of the VK Side Tie Vest in my New York yarn, but it doesn't make a very exciting photo. It looks like I'm going to have lots of yarn left over, so I could have done a bigger size. I'm a little worried about it being to small. We'll see, I can always rip it back a bit.

Today, I'm off to watch the Easter Parade, and then I think I need to tackle my taxes. Ugh.

I hope you have a Happy Easter weekend!

Weight Watchers

I've gained 20 lbs since December. Ugh.

I grew up one of those skinny, scrawny girls that everyone hates. I was only 99 lbs when I started university, and a whole lot of that was boob.

During university, I gained my freshmen 15, and it's just continued since then. I'm sure it was a combination of a slowing metabolisms, and a deep respect for beer.

My mom's side of the family has a lot of big girls, so I've always been aware of my potential to get big. After university I started going to the gym, and then in the last few years started running and then more recently swimming. I've always managed to maintain my weight that way, and have never had to watch what I ate.

So what's happening now? I'm having some major problems with my back. Running and swimming make it hurt A LOT, and even walking too much knocks me out. Last time I was at physio, she basically told me to take a break from all of them.

Hence, the 20 lb weight gain. I feel pretty gross.

So, it's time to try another tactic. Last night I signed up for Weight Watchers online.

Today, I count points.

Top Down Raglan Cardi Details

Sorry..... forgot to provide the specs...

Top Down Raglan Cardi
Pattern: CosmicPluto Knits
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, 8 balls black, 1 ball wine (#617 I think)
Needles: my first set of Addi's (5mm)
Details: I used seed stitch for the edging instead of garter stitch, I shortened the sleeves, and I used the side shaping instructions
What I might do differently next time: Knit it a size smaller, and use a smaller size needle for the edging

The Celestine Prophecy

I've been volunteering for an agency called ALDER (Adult Learning Disability Employment Resources) on their Event Planning Committee.
We're hosting a fundraising event next week- sneak previews of the movie The Celestine Prophecy.
The tickets are $25.00, and there are two showings, Monday April 10th and Wednesday April 12th, 7:00 pm, at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto.

ALDER is a small organization that relies on funding from the public to help adults with learning disabilities find and keep jobs, free of charge.

So whether you liked the book or not, why not come out and say hi, and help someone find a job!

Some Knitting Content... Finally

Sorry about the lack of posts- Work has been crazy this week, and I think the time change totally knocked me out. I feel like I just can't get enough sleep.
That or I'm dying. Hmm......

So, I of course have been knitting with my yarn from New York. I know I have 4 other projects on the go (Blissful Jacket, Shapely Tank, Socks, and Cocktail Monkey Bag.... still), but I couldn't resist!

It's nice to knit with, and is looking good. I was afraid the reverse stocking stitch would look too tight, I had to go down almost a whole mm in needle size to get gauge, but it looks great.


Except this:

I've read about pooling, but I've never knit a big project with variegated yarn before, and hence have never experienced it. At first I was worried about the two green blobs (thank god it's not on the front!), but now when I take the picture, I see the great big diamond! Craziness! I've read about pooling, but I have no clue what to do to change it....... I don't think this will bug me too much on the back, but I really hope nothing like this happens on the front.
Any suggestions?

I've also been working on the shapely tank:

Not a very exciting photo. I think following the pattern exactly is going to make it too long, so I need to sit down and do some measuring and math... but not tonight. I can only do math with a not tired brain.

And finally... the top-down raglan cardi... finished!



I LOVE it! It's too big ( I would knit it a size smaller next time), but the yarn is sooo soft! It is the coziest sweater ever. I love that I did the sleeves shorter, and I love the buttons I picked. Yay, a good sweater by me!

A New York Story.... Finally

So, New York...... I had an awesome time, and have been trying to catch up on my sleep ever since!

What did I do while I was there, you ask? I got there without a plan- meaning I didn't have a list of things I wanted to see..... that's a first for me! So, it was all just wandering as we went. I spent the entire weekend with relatives, so I didn't have any time on my own to wander on my own.

On Friday we walked around the Diamond District, Rockefeller Centre, and Times Square.
There's a Japanese bookstore at Rockefeller called Kinokuniya. At the last Knitting Olympics, Amy had a Japanese book with hundreds of stitches in it. She had ordered it online, but also mentioned this store had some, so this is what I got. I has 500 cable and lace type patterns, written out in charts, and with diagrams, so I don't even have to learn Japanese!



















Saturday was filled with lots of walking around Brooklyn, and eating, and much drinking. My cousin's husband is the manager of the Knitting Factory, a big club in TriBeCa, so the birthday party for Courtney was there, and it was only $1 for drinks..... which for me meant that Sunday was a day of marathon puking. I am such a dork! I can't believe I was so bad in front of my relatives! Ah, well, you only live once.

On Sunday, we did some more wandering around the city. We went to Battery City Park to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The line up was way too long to go out there, but it was a beautiful sunny day to walk around anyway. Then we went to ground zero- the site where the Trade Centre used to be. I was a little awestruck being there. Seeing it all on tv was nothing like seeing it in person. Even more disturbing was seeing how close Courtney's old office was. She was only four blocks away on September 11. Thankfully she made it through the day ok.

We also went to Central Park to see Strawberry Fields (the monument to John Lennon) and the building that he used to live in.
It's amazing how big the park is, and apparently there's another park in Brooklyn that's actually bigger. There are hardly any small green spaces throughout the city, and you can walk for quite a bit without seeing a tree, so I guess they try to make up for it with their parks.

We still had quite a bit of time before I had to catch my bus, so I dragged them all to a yarn store, how could I not! I had been so good all weekend. So, we headed to School Products. Purl was another of my top picks to check out, but School Products was closer.

They had almost every colour of Brown Sheep Wools, and tonnes of other name brand, but the best part was the great big table in the middle. There were skeins and skeins of different hand-spun, hand-painted yarns to dig through. Apparently this is one of their specialties, they buy the ends of high end yarns from Italy. I spent an hour just touching them and looking at all the colours... heaven!

I ended up with 5 skeins of this:














It's 60% silk, 40% cashmere, and it is so soft! I love the orange and green colours. Unfortunately my camera doesn't do it justice.

I also found a copy of Big Girl Knits, which I though didn't come out until this week.... what a great book it is! The patterns may be too big for me, but the tips and instructions in it are fantastic. It is so well written, and fun to read. I was giggling on the way home on the bus at 3:00 in the morning.....


















What will I make with my New York yarn? I'm thinking this, from the new Vogue Knitting, which was in ,y mailbox when I got home. I got gauge (i had to of course swatch as soon as I got home), but it may be a little tight/think for my liking, so maybe it will become Clapotis.....