Life's a Stitch

That’s our name for Whole Foods. When they first opened I regularly
splurged on their dark German rye bread for $3 a loaf. That loaf of
bread is now $7. Seven dollars for a loaf of bread. I don’t think so.

Let’s play the Price is Right. A recent advertisement was pushing
their easy holiday turkey dinner. It had crab soup, turkey, potatoes,
veggies, cranberry sauce, gravy and buns. No dessert. This feast feeds
six. What do you think? A hundred bucks? After all it is Whole
Paycheque Market. If you guessed $195, you would be correct without
going over. The actual price is $195.99. And you have to cook the
turkey.

If you are ordering that meal and want to pick up dessert, our neighbourhood has recently seen the opening of a cupcake bakery. That’s right, all they sell are cupcakes and an occasional fancy full sized cake. Day old cupcakes are $9 for six. Fresh ones are $24 per dozen.  When did cupcakes get so expensive? Want to feed a crowd? Their 4 inch "full sized" cake sells for $22-25. I am in the wrong business.

I guess everyone has their priorities. If I’m going to spend that kind of money on something frivolous, it better have the word karats instead of
carrots in the description. Or cashmere.

Can you stand one more FO picture complete with cute kid and dog? My sister sent this picture of the mother/daughter scarves I made for her and my niece for Christmas. They are an identical assortment of yarns, knit lengthwise, one straight and one curly. BTW Jane reports that Sullivan the dog is not carrying excess weight – he’s a Blocky Lab. You learn something new every day. Who’d have imagined you’d learn that on a knitting blog?

That’s how I feel about modeling shots – grin and bear wear it. Inevitably when a knitting blogger features an FO there’s a cry from the comment section – how about a modeling shot? First up:

Pattern: The Seville Jacket from Oat Couture Size:small (beware the sizing, I usually make a large, but had the opportunity to try on a sample at a yarn shop and chose otherwise).

Yarn: Tahki New Tweed (colour #1 ecru) – 10 skeins. Didn’t have enough yarn for seaming and used silk thread, causing  weaving  in  issues.

Modifications: Increased the length by about two inches. Thoughts: Yarn is too drapey for a sweater. I’d make it again with a sturdier fiber.

Next, I humbly present the first Landscape scarf. Sorry to disappoint those of you who thought it was a shawl. You must think I’m a knittin’ machine to be able to turn out two of these in short succession, but I’m willing to fess up. The pattern comes with the scarf and shawl versions. I usually wear this one tucked into a collared shirt, but for the sake of the m-shot I’ve worn it outside with one of the ties exposed.

   

Dios Mio, what a mugshot!

Pattern: Landscape Shawl and Scarf by Fibertrends

Yarn: Koigu, two skeins. I love, love, love the way each little picot comes out in a different colour.

Thoughts: I made my second one larger by adding an additional stitch pattern. Don’t bother, it’s too big to wear tucked and too small to wear on the outside.

It’s obvious from the sweater m-shot that I haven’t done a post-seaming blocking. You know what else I haven’t done?

100% knitting content ahead, I owe it to you as this is really a knitting blog and you’ve been very patient with the antics of a certain 17 year old boy. So, on to the knitting front…

Stash? I have no stash, because I learned way back when, in training for the field of social work and counselling, if it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen. That’s why you’ll see no stash on Ravelry.

At our North Vancouver Ravelry group knit night this week someone pointed to another member saying "SHE has a problem, her stash now involves storage."

"Oh yes," I say innocently, "I can relate, I bought two plastic chests of drawers to store my stash."

"No," replies other member, the guilty party now sliding more deeply into her chair, "I mean storage as in a storage unit with monthly rent." Now that’s a stash.

Keeping true to my promise to finish up an item or two, here’s my completed Landscape Scarf #2. I made this one larger by adding an additional stitch pattern – Sand Stitch. It’s soft soft Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn and took me an entire weekend to complete. I believe it was an act of revenge for having ignored it for so long in its near finished state. I hope Marina isn’t as vindictive or I may be posting from the ER.

OK I lied. Here’s a non knitting content photo. What could be more cozy than a dog curled up under a chair by a fire? In our climate, with recent persistent rain, this picture makes me happy. And you thought the lie was about my stash.

When the babies were very little, my SIL would play a game of  tiny calisthenics with them, lifting up their arms and putting them down, two slow movements followed by two quick ones. It would go "uuuppp dooowwn, uuuppp dooowwn, up down, up down." The little ones would crack up with those adorable peals of baby giggles. Little did I know she was describing the act of parenting. One day is up and the next down and you can’t help but feel there’s a little laughing going on, but not out loud enough to cause further annoyance. Maybe this 17 year old has a bit of good judgment and self control lodged between those ears. I know he does and the downs will become less frequent. Hopefully. 

Here’s another up, his team’s latest entry into a five minute film festival. This one made the cut from 200 to 30 and was nominated for best acting ensemble. He wrote the story and the score. Typical teen angst at it’s best, complete with real life foreshadowing – look for his line "….for the party you’ll secretly have while we’re gone." Here’s "Typical" –  if it doesn’t work, here’s the link.

"Successfully" graduating two kids into their 20’s, I’m still locked into high school hell with #3. I spoke too soon in my last post regarding a high level of trust for New Year’s Eve. Poor Mari, given permission to be left in charge to chaperone a handful of 17 year olds, realizes it only takes one party goer to spoil it for the rest. After a comment on that teen timebomb, Facebook, the handful turned into 35. That would be 34 semi well behaved teens, at least well behaved enough not to inflict damage on themselves or their immediate surroundings, and one out of control young woman who left her stomach contents, which included an entire bottle of red wine, on my carpet. As Mari warned her, it’s just as red coming up as it was going down. And, guess what?  It doesn’t come out no matter how much enzyme cleaner you use.

As a firm believer in natural and logical consequences for guiding childhood behaviour, the 17 yr old will be handing over his paycheques until all damages are fixed, including the crystal vase, which, while falling off the shelf, took out the Ott Light floor lamp, the two, smashed and broken on the living room floor. I also believe in teachable moments and Mr.B has learned a new concept – collateral damage. When someone bangs into the bathroom sink, and breaks a faucet pipe, the water damage to the closet below is also your responsibility.

Obliviously away from home on New Year’s Eve, with Blogless Marsha and Dave, we decided that rather then concentrate on our customary discussion of resolutions, we would list things in our lives that help us feel good. You KNOW that yarn was on that list. Marsha and I took it seriously and started our New Year at 8:00 a.m. at Bellingham’s Apple Yarns’s 30% off everything sale. Following through with my personal promise to increase my stash only with sale items, here’s my haul minus the swift that I was not quick enough to add to my basket, they sold out too swiftly so to speak. But Dream in Color, Koigu, silk blend (!) Manos, Colinette Jitterbug, and Sublime will all help make my knitting life happy.

Note to Knitters: smart Andrea, owner of Apple Yarns, has scheduled two sales per year – New Year’s Day and the 4th of July – 30% off everything form 8:00a.m-noon. She even serves Starbucks coffee to eager early birds. I know it’s difficult for Canadian knitters to manage the border on holiday weekends, but be assured, her inventory of yarn may just be too irresistible to wait for the sales. If you get the opportunity to visit tell her I say Hi.

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of participating on a yarn crawl of Bellingham with Dorothy, and the blogless: Marsha (Seattle), Daisy, and Linda (both from Ottawa). The Ottawans, arriving by bus, experienced a two hour delay at the border. Really, I can’t imagine terrorists crossing the border by Greyhound, but I suppose stranger things have happened. Dorothy and I commenced with a pre-crawl, sending Chuck to the bus station to wait for the delayed.

The day was a success, but having been recently gifted with lovely yarn from Wendy and the Ottawa knitters, all I bought were three more skeins of Tatamy tweed in order to add more circumference to my Hemlock blanket. Alas, I have no photo of this event, as I have a new cell phone and have discovered that it is not a good idea to learn its features, like sending photos, with cross border roaming charges. My brand new "free" touch phone came with a steep and expensive learning curve. For example, I accidentally called myself while roaming, left a message, and then paid roaming charges to pick up the clueless message which recorded my words "I don’t know what I’m doing." 

Daisy needs to reconsider her blogless state. In a thank you e-mail she cleverly observed the following, a prime example of do as I say not as I do:

And as my camera accompanied me to B’Ham sans memory card, I have no other photos to offer other than these two rascals, also left in Vancouver, with a high level of trust to have a safe and happy New Year:

OK guys, you’re scaring your mom. Give me that sweet angelic look I know you’re capable of:

The same goes to all of you – a safe and Happy New Year!

North American emegency room staff saw almost 7000 admissions last year for injuries resulting from wrestling with wrap. You know the kind I mean, the armour that encases anything electronic. The stuff that requires the assistance or  kitchen knives or razor blades or cover your ears you dental types, teeth. Injuries include deep cuts, some involving tendons and surgery, sore shoulders, inadvertent self inflicted punches and plastic wedged painfully between teeth.

The number of admissions increases when you include other types of packaging – CD shrinkwrap or plastic zip straps, for example. They have a name for this affliction, they call it wrap rage. I’ve been there and so has Mari:

There was also wrap happiness here. Santa delivered a surprise all the way from Alabama, thanks to Wendy of Catknits. No rage here, the US postal service boxes are easily opened with a simple pulltab. Inside was Shibui merino yarn, a tool case and this sweet knitting S’More:

Wishing you the grace and magic of Christmas all year long.

Those of you who know me are familiar with the fact that my office is located in a shopping mall. A dangerous place, indeed, for the paycheque. Not as bad as when, as a teen, I worked at a department store and was paid in cash. The good side of working in a mall is that you get to be a friend of Santa.

Our Santa, the real one, of course, visits our office regularly. He’ll sit and chat in our reception area and pretty soon, the magnet that he is, attracts all sorts of kids noses pressed flat against our reception area’s window. We invite them in for a private audience and you can tell they’re thrilled. Santa asks them "What’s one special thing I can bring you for Christmas? His favourite stories came from:

• a little boy requesting a personal robot. As he leaves, he turns around, and demands, "Make sure he’s the one that can clean my room." Santa remarks he wants that one, too.
• another boy who asks, "Santa, may I have a word with you?" "Certainly," replies Santa. "When you come to my house you and the reindeers will park on my roof, right?" "That’s the plan," says Santa. "Well, while you’re up there can you throw down my frisbee?"
• a girl with debilitating cerebral palsy, she has visited him for several years in a row now. She’s getting older and wiser. He asks for her one special thing. "A new brain," she says. He tells us Santa is not supposed to cry.

True stories, all of them.  I know that Santa is not what Christmas is about, but how can you not love this man who inspires such a sense of excitement and hope? Do you remember your special store Santa?

My sister and I would make the rounds of all the stores, voting on which Santa was the real one, all the rest being his helpers. It was always the Lord and Taylor Santa, who had his own specially built little house located behind the store. That enchanting little cabin is no longer there, at the store anyway, but it will always be in my memory as one of the magical aspects of my childhood Christmas celebrations.

It seems the knitting content on this knitting blog is lacking, but knitting is happening. It is difficult to photograph, but I’m on the last skein of Tatamy Tweed for the Hemlock Blanket. Without a knitting photo and believeing that all posts must have a picture, here is one taken from the top of Mount Constitution on Orcas Island last weekend. See that bird on the right? That’s an eagle with a wingspan of over seven feet. What a sight! That’s Mount Baker hovering over Bellingham and Birch Bay, Washington. What majesty.

Came home from work last week to see the following google search recorded on my toolbar: chili left out over night. Uh-oh, husband in trouble.

The night before I cooked a huge pot of chili, painstakingly made from shredded beef, with a jar of Trader Joe’s mole sauce mixed in for good measure. It was late, I was tired. My last words for the day were called down to Chuck, "Can you put the chili away?" My ears registered fridge door sounds in the kitchen. I slipped into peaceful sleep and dreams of future meals – chili with shredded cheese served over quinoa. Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm.

Went to work early the next morning, all day fantasizing about the meal to come. I know you`re thinking. Get a grip, right. It`s just that our working schedules, and the lack of children at home, don`t encourage slow cooked meals, and too often we `punt`for dinner, our expression for grabbing whatever is available. Remember that old commercial when the guy pranced around singing `We`re having chicken tonight, chicken tonight, chicken tonight. Once, when we punted too many days in a row, while I was cooking dinner, Chuck bounded into the kitchen singing We`re having dinner tonight….

Back to the disaster at hand. Here`s the dilemma. The evidence being a pot of chili left on the stove for nine hours, still luke warn. Pursuing the search stated above, Chick found a split jury. The professionals all say to chuck the chili. Regular people say to boil the heck out of it and enjoy. Don`t you love the internet. There were an astonishing number of people out there who share this experience.

What would you do? Don`t worry I won`t invite you to dinner for chili in the near future. I’ll share our decision at the end of this post.

Lack of knitting content. Really, this isn’t just the same old scarf in a new pose. It’s grown at least six inches:

The outcome of our dietary dilemma; obviously we lived to tell the tale. We decided to live dangerously by boiling the fetid feast for an hour prior to indulging. A calculated risk, two days in advance of our anniversary getaway. All’s well that ends well.