Life's a Stitch

Working in a mall has its drawbacks. Your kids feel free to put items on hold letting the clerks know their Mom works in the mall and would be happy to stop by on her break armed with a charge card. They think nothing of interrupting your day with a request. "Mom, on your break can you pick me up a can of Axe body spray?" So I did. Axe body spray is sold in the deodorant section only it’s twice the price. This kid is going to smell me out of house and home. The thing is, Bry is (how do I put this without angering him or causing him teen angst)  young for his age and doesn’t even smell yet.

Charlotte update: my favourite project of all times, even more fun the second time.

Apologies if your button has suddenly disappeared from my sidebar. I’m trying to figure out the problem. It’s been very frustrating. I promise I’ll get you back soon.

Next week I am travelling to Alberta for training, but first spending the weekend and my birthday with daughter #1. I’m hoping to post my usual four times, but in case I can’t, I have a guest blogger or two lined up. Want to guess? One is the son of a stitch himself, Bryant. Have a great weekend.

I’ve decided that I can handle having four UFO’s at once. More than that is too much, but sometimes I cross the line. Yesterday I had the Autumn Silk cardigan, the cable scarf, and another incomplete scarf tucked away.

The cardigan would be more of a fun knit if the yarn weren’t so frustrating. I decided to substitute Estelle Mystik for the tussah silk. It splits easily and being rayon and cotton, has a lot of stretch and drape, making it difficult to measure. The threads come apart so easily they stick to the rough parts on my hands. I have to use plenty of hand cream when knitting this project. It doesn’t seem to be a problem once knitted, but all the unknitted ends are separating into strands of thread.

Lace knitting really appeals to me.  Last year’s Charlotte’s Web shawl got me hooked. It was a bit overambitious for a beginning lace knitter, but I wasn’t going to give up. So, look what’s jumped onto my 6mm needles. I’ve loved this colour Koigu and have slowly built my stash so I can do another Charlotte, this time all in one colourway. Now I have four projects on the go.

Back on Friday.

So my birthday is coming up; I’m an Ides of March baby. Maybe that explains some of my quirkiness. My husband and I came to an agreement a long time ago regarding gifting.  The rules are:

1. Gifts can’t plug into the wall unless the recipient has expressed a desire for the object. A replacement toaster oven is not a gift.

2. Gifts must be something the giftee wants, not something the giver wants. A wood lathe would fail on both counts – it plugs into the wall and the gifter wants it more than the giftee.

3. We don’t do anniversary gifts to each other, it’s too close to Christmas and we use it as an opportunity to do something together or buy something we both want and that, indeed, could be a replacement toaster oven. There was an exception to this; we agreed to buy nothing for our 20th anniversary, but Chuck gifted me with a wedding ring for himself. It meant a lot since he had lost his ring when we were married six months and wasn’t in a rush to replace it. He wrapped it in nine consecutively smaller sized boxes.

4. Be careful what you say. Pointing out the pewter reindeer in the Cold Water Creek catalogue doesn’t mean you want a family of them for Christmas.

That said, I was gifted with ballroom dance classes this Christmas. It was something I really wanted that didn’t plug into the wall. It was truly a gift because Chuck wasn’t thrilled about it, his gift was his participation. So, now comes the b-day and he hasn’t asked me what I might want. Not being shy about asking I popped the question, "How about a single night fox trot class?" His reply, "Who’s taking you?" So much for that. Jewelry works just fine for me. Or yarn.

Slogging away on the Autumn Silk Cardigan; some projects just seem to take longer than others. I’ve finished the two front panels, this is the back. I don’t knit in the same order from project to project:

Nadia, a UBC student and a knitting blogger, left a comment on my blog a while back when I posted about Koigu coming to Vancouver. Since she lacks transportation I offered to pick her up last Saturday at the seabus, take her to lunch and to West Vancouver’s Knit and Stitch for some Koigu. It was especially fun for me as my two girls are away at school and it nourished my mothering needs. My son couldn’t believe that I was meeting up with someone I met on line. "For all you know she could be a 65 year old dirty old man posing as a student," he advised me with his 14 year old wisdom, "What would you do if I did that?" I told him I’d go with him. He took that as an invitation and accompanied us. Turns out her friends told her the same thing. I assure you, it was very innocent, two devoted knitters out for a day on the town. Nadia did a good job of enhancing her stash as she had a good week selling on E-Bay. She bought Koigu for a pretty blue Charlotte and yarn for three other projects. Take a look on her blog, she took photos at the shop to post. It’s interesting meeting another knit blogger, despite the age difference you have so much in common.

Nadia gave me this, which she whipped up that morning, being an accomplished seamstress as well as a knitter. It’s a travel case for two pairs of circular needles with pockets for double pointeds, crochet hook or a cable needle. Thanks, Nadia. Poor girl got a taste of life in our family complete with 14 year old attitude and the dog puking in the car.

I saw two signs last weekend that have stuck with me. They were both nice professionally made signs. One said "Free Manure – call to make appointment." OK, I’ll put that on my list of tasks: finish writing will, deposit cheques at the bank (how come that’s not banque in Canadian?), book time for teeth cleaning and make appointment to buy manure. The second one really cracked my up. I was laughing out loud in the lady’s room at a Thai restaurant reading the engraved brass plaque on the back of the stall door: " Important notice: This toilet has a history of clogging. Please flush as many times as possible during your stay." It reminded me of when I was in eighth grade. On Saturdays my friends and I participated in a teen bowling league. Afterwards we’d go to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. The lunch special was $1.10 for wonton soup, chow mein, and canned pineapple for dessert. Two of us would split it, .55 each, with negotiations regarding who would get the soup and who would get dessert. The restaurant was called the August Moon. There were rumors that the health department had once closed them down for using cat meat instead of chicken. In that restroom someone had written something else in the stall door: "Flush twice, it’s a long way to the kitchen." Yumm.

I’m still knitting away on my cable scarf  and I’ve started again on my Autumn Silk Cardigan:

A few years back I was lamenting the fact that there no longer seemed to be time or energy to do anything except parent and work. I never thought things could possibly get easier, but as those little chicks get their flying wings, time has magically reappeared. Over the past year, in addition to working full time, I’ve found time for knitting, blogging, ball room dance class with Chuck and a couple of weekends ago, after a break of nearly 17 years, I went back to my attempts at watercolour painting. Just over a year ago I pulled out the paints and was terribly discouraged that I had lost any knowledge I once had. Knowing how much I missed that part of my life, daughter #2 gave me a watercolour set for my last BIG b-day, but still I was discouraged. I decided to start from the beginning and took a one day introductory workshop with a wonderful teacher, Frank Townsley. So here is my unveiling. It just an ordinary amateurish watercolour landscape, but it’s provided me hope and joy that I can manage to pursue this again:

See you on Friday!

I haven’t talked much about our recent foreign student. We have hosted over 50 students in ten years and generally it is a good experience. Three of the four exceptions have been between the ages of 18 and 19. We are in the midst of one of those exceptions. This student wasn’t adjusting as well as the others, spending her time at the computer or at school, which she wasn’t thrilled about. When I talk about computer time, I mean 12 hours a day, sometimes falling asleep at the computer. I talked with her about balance to no avail. The other night I believed I caught her involved in some inappropriate behaviour in a chat room. The next day we found photos stored on our computer of “indiscreet” poses taken in our home. That was that. We arranged for a transfer in homestay arrangements, but as a mental health professional I believe that she needs more than that so I’m trying to put together some assurance that she gets the help she needs before she gets into further trouble. This misguided child was accessing sketchy chat rooms using her real name and photos.

     For a break we went down to our little place in Bellingham, WA. It is my refuge, but this time we were greeted by a leaky roof, broken gas fireplace, shorted out stove and a drippy fridge. I’ll have to plan a few days in a row when I can sit around knitting and waiting for repair people. I hit four knit shops and didn’t buy one thing. I went with shopping in mind but none of them had what I was looking for; Lamb’s Pride bulky for the flower basket knit along, Heirloom Alpaca in red for a cable scarf, and something black and metallic for a shawl I’ll be making for a gift.

     Didn’t accomplish much knitting, but I did start a simple cable scarf:

So how long should a scarf be? Please tell me that size doesn’t matter. Is 45" acceptable, 48", 70"? I’ve found scarves an excellent way to indulge in expensive yarns that I might  not otherwise buy. But sometimes two balls doesn’t seem quite enough for me. OK, get your minds out of the gutter. Any opinions on size? I once knit an 80" one and that seemed too much, but 45"? Really, I’m beginning to think size matters.

Here is my completed Fey Fantasia, measuring in at 54". I’d love to have it a bit longer but it is pricey yarn and there is no way I’m in for a fifth skein. It has a nice weight so it stays put when thrown over the shoulder. Some scarves don’t and need length to be wrapped around my neck. This was fun yarn to knit, even twice:

When it comes to carpet stains I am like a dog with a bone. I will not let it go without a good fight. I know all the products and swear by a few. I’ve had two puppies, a baby with projectile vomiting, and the normal spills of life but this week I met my challenge. My office is located up an escalator from a Starbucks. My staff think Starbuck’s is better than any coffee the office might offer them and spend a good deal of money on their ventis. Now I’m not much of a coffee drinker, I do like good decaf, but price matters and I’m not coughing up $5 a day for Starbucks. Not when there’s yarn like Granbia in the world. I opt for my daily two litres of peppermint tea instead (mostly clear, easily cleaned up). When I arrived at work on Wednesday there was a HUGE stain on the carpet. HUGE doesn’t describe how large it was. It was a venti venti! After grumbling that nobody cared for the carpet quite as much as I do, I went at it. Half a bottle of Folex and half a tub of Oxy clean failed to make a dent. I consulted with the world via the web and found the following recipe: 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide plus 1 teaspoon of ammonia used within half an hour of mixing, followed by a blanket of weighted paper towels promised success. My co-workers expressed fear that I was making a poisonous gas. I agreed not to breath it in and off I went into battle. It looks like I’m winning, but we won’t know for sure until it’s drying and we see what rises to the surface from the underlay. I have not been overcome with poisonous gas so that’s a plus.

No knitting pictures today, hopefully a photo of a finished object on Monday. In answer to a question yesterday regarding the Fey Fantasia scarf – it is done in Mistaken Rib over 39 stitches.

Have a great weekend.

When all else fails, read the directions. How long is it going to take me to learn that? Remember the Colinette Mercury I was knitting with a while back? I described it as being aptly named because the yarn "melted" into a pool even though carefully wound. Last night I found the label and noticed printing on the inside, printing I had missed the first time around. It says,"Mercury by name, mercury by nature. This yarn is liquid and will flow into its own form and tangle if set free!!! I added the exclamation points. Then it says, "So be in control!" That is their exclamation mark. Later into the instructions, "Do not attempt to wind this yarn on a yarn swift." Ha-ha I did that. "Well, look what happened to it" the label says to me. You were supposed to wind it into a ball over the back of a chair, place the ball in a small plastic bag, an "get knitting tangle free." Apologies to the s-i-l who spent two hours untangling the liquid mess. I’m seriously wondering if the ends I wove in will stay and have advised the Mercury scarf’s recipient that a needle and thread might prove good insurance against yarn with a mind if its own. I don’t think I’ll use Mercury again.

After I figured out my Fey Fantasia this project started to remind me of Groundhog Day. The movie, not the actual day that has recently passed, but the Bill Murray film where he gets to repeat the events of the day over and over until he gets it right. Fantasia is my Ground Hog Day scarf. It’s not bad enough  that I frogged it when I was 75% finished, the other night after merrily knitting away at my Chicks with Sticks group, I discovered a mistake that must have occurred in the first row of the evening. Instant replay; I had to frog it back by half for a do-over. At least the entire scarf is now being knitted with wavy frogged yarn. And here’s my new method of knitting with pinky extended: