Life's a Stitch

Yes, we have winners, not just one, but two. I decided to go ahead and pick two winners, one by the original rules and one by the rules that ruled out spam. #6000 was officially Toni in Florida, who prefers sock or mid weight yarn and the random draw, limiting entries to one per day was chunky yarn knitter – my sister Jane, in New Hampshire. 

Thanks to all who entered. I wish I could send everyone yarn and if I win the big lottery – I will.

Want to see what I'm knitting now? I'm loving this one, the yarn, the pattern, everything about it. It's Interweave's Lacy Kerchief Scarf in Shibui yarn, which I received as a surprise a while back from Wendy of Catknits. Thanks again, Wendy.

So this is what I'll do: of my very nearly 6000 comments, 162 are five years worth of spam, and I didn't think it fair to count that in the total. So what I'll do, is when I get to #6000 I'll put all of the contest comments into a hat and draw it randomly. If you've entered by commenting on several posts, hoping to hit #6000, you will be entered more than once. If you haven't, feel free to comment again and increase your chances. I want to have this done for next weekend so I can mail it when I'm in the US.

It'll be over soon. It's getting close. Really close.

Realized this weekend that I've spent the past three Halloweens on a ship. Two cruise ships and a BC ferry. Not quite the same, especially for Gracee who was relegated to the ship's doggie brig:

 

It's not so bad, just two cars away was this view:

Ahhh, Beautiful BC. It was this view, on this ferry route, about 30 years ago that Chuck looked into the distance and said, I'm going to live there someday. And here we are. 

Lots going on, much to celebrate. In weeks past I've had my tenth anniversary at work, my fifth as a blogger, and very soon someone will leave my 6,000th comment. Perfect timing for a blog contest. Tell me if you prefer lace, sock, midweight or chunky knitting, or even if you're not a knitter at all, that's OK, too. If you leave comment #6000 I'll send you an appropriate treat. Like more than one kind of yarn or have gone from a non- knitter to one of us? Feel free to enter more than once.

I received a treat the other night at our AGM at work. A little blue Canadian Birk's box holding a traditional employee anniversary gift. Last year Chuck was presented with a Birk's watch for his 10th. I like mine better, but all you get to see is the box, They've sent the silver bracelet off to the engraver's. It's a perfect gift, something that I'd never buy for myself, but appreciate and will wear a lot:

Skunked!The picture of misery:

 

Gracee Mae bit the butt of a skunk and this is what she got in return. A direct hit to the face. If anything positive can come from this experience, it's the opportunity to share our recipe for the definitive skunk smell neutralizer:

Forget the tomato juice and expensive enzyme solutions. Use this, it
works every time: about 1/4 cup of baking soda, a good squirt of dish
detergent, and 1/2 cup of peroxide. Mix it and work it well into the
coat. Rinse well. We don’t even measure anymore, just pour on the
ingredients and go to it. (NOTE: this must be mixed fresh each time, it
will lose its effectiveness if stored.)

The antithesis of Grace's misery photo, is one of daughter #1's cat, Chompers, held by daughter #2:

I am not a cat person and was not a fan of Chompers after he bit me in his kitty youth. Now that he's mellowed, even we are friends.

When we moved to Canada people asked why we wanted to live in a place so cold. We left Omaha for a more temperate climate. The warm Pacific currents give Vancouver its mild weather with an average January high temperature of 43F. Hardly anything to shovel in an typical winter and no need for summer air conditioning. And very few mosquitoes. When we moved here the lack of window screens baffled us.

We've not had the opportunity to have Christmas dinner on the deck, something friends who already lived here used for relocation bait. But we have had a Christmas rose blooming in the garden. Amazing, as our house is locasted fairly far up the mountain.

My daughters, however, both live in Alberta, where it's already snowed. And that's where I am for this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. It has confirmed for me what I already knew. I am a weather wimp.

We could have moved to Iceland, where, believe it of not, the midwinter temperature parallels New York City's. I read once that Iceland was named to keep people away and that
Greenland was named to attract people to its more Arctic climate.

That's an Emerald (to be) in the snowflakes of Iceland yarn. Perhaps it should have been called Greenland yarn, which would have gone better with Emerald.

I work for a social service agency located in a shopping mall. It's good for the clients, accessibility-wise and bad for the employees spending-wise. A mall is like a little city and all that comes with it. Monday there was a fire, necessitating a two hour evacuation. Tuesday there was a flood. We were betting on Wednesday. Cue the locusts.

Managing a social service agency involves looking after funding equating to 28 employee's jobs and  contributing to a workplace that encourages good mental health practices. Other than knitting, my personal coping skill involves food and the mall has a food court. Need I say more? I allow myself the indulgence of stress induced eating, several times per year.

So this week, with a fire and a flood, we're managing over $100,000 in funding cuts. And I ate poutine. The epitome of Canadian junk food, fries with melted stringy cheese and brown gravy. Yumm. And I sought comfort in another Little Girl's Shrug:

Chuck woke up and told me his dream:

“I was travelling on public transit. Worried about getting off at the correct stop.

Got off at the next stop, not sure which direction to go. First downhill then uphill.

(Hold on knitters, this is where it gets exciting.)

As I was going uphill I was retrieving yarn, two strands at a time, intended to be knit together, but I had to keep the yarn separated.

I had the opportunity to buy more yarn, but in order to carry it, it had to be knit first and I realized….

I don`t know how to cast on.“

Oooh, I can turn that nightmare into a good dream. I can make your dreams come true, baby.

First you start with needles. Now it turns into my real life knitting dream come true. Thanks to a contact in Germany I have all the reasonably priced Addi needles one could ever want, at least if you are a North American knitter.

Then there are those European sizes that have no US equivalent. Take the 7mm, what would be a US size 10.75. I find that one especially useful. I find too big a jump between 10.5's and 11's, and have difficulty getting gauge with chunky yarn. Lacking a 7mm 24" Addi, and no trip to Germany planned in the near future, I turned to e-bay.

This is a Hong Kong vendor advertising in Australian dollars, and the shipping comes to more than the needles (I find it a deceitful practice that some e-bay vendors have, making up for low prices in shipping fees), but in this case it was still a bargain.

And if you have no Addis, are tired of the flaws of interchangables, and are ready to to invest in the needles of your dreams, look at this vendor.

Sweet dreams.

Blogless Marsha inspired me. You see, over four years ago I was travelling for work. It was that infamous trip, unfortunately timed with my birthday, where I broke my leg. But that's another story, already told. On the way to my destination I stopped to visit my daughter in Edmonton for a couple of days, having the opportunity to shop at Pam's Woolley Shop in Stoney Plain, AB. And shop I did.

That's where Blogless Marsha comes in. She and I were enamoured with Sirdar Denim Ultra and I bought enough for the both of us, having to borrow an extra piece of luggage from the daughter in order to shlep the stuff home. Well, my purchase gave me plenty of knitting entertainment – said yarn was used on three different Sirdar patterns. The first one was too small, the second too baggy, the third looked like it might be juuuuust right.

A couple of weeks ago Marsha showed me her nearly complete Sirdar Denim Ultra cardigan. It was enough inspiration to get me going again. Four and a half years later, here it is:

Pattern: Jacket in Sirdar Denim Ultra #8849

Yarn: Sirdar Denim Ultra – 7.5 skeins Needles: 10mm (US size 15)

Notes: Well, where do I start? Fours years = an unplanned increase in bust size. I added two rows of single crochet edging all the way around to accommodate the additional, ahem, circumference. It allowed me to add a nice buttonhole, as the one I tried to knit in looked like a gaping mouth. No wonder the pattern suggests a snap. 

Negatives? There's always something. It's not a major one, but the seed stitch collar is so drapey it bunches a bit at the back of the neck. I might try reinforcing the base with some more crochet. Yes, yes, yes, you may quote me from prior posts and comments, the artist is her own worst critic. 

And for those of you who request modelling shots, although I'm not at all a fan of self portraiture, here you go. My arms aren't long enough for the typical pose, so you get the mirror shot. 

Maybe it's because it took over four years, but it's kind of grown on me. So to speak.