Monday, April 30, 2007

FO: Lacy Hug-Me-Tight

Here it is, finally finished.


Pattern: Lacy Hug-Me-Tight by Mel Clark
Source: Knit 2 Together by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark
Materials: five skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk in Colour I33 (Blush)
Needles: US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 8 (5 mm) bamboo circs.
Started: March 27, 2007
Finished knitting: April 29, 2007


Notes: I'm very happy with this garment. It could use some light blocking, but I was so excited about finishing it that I haven't bathed it yet (plus, the drying rack is currently occupied). It looks lovely with this maroon dress and it'll also look nice with a couple other dresses I own.

Watch out! This is my over-the-shoulder-red-carpet pose.


The only qualm I had with this pattern is the funky diagram. I'm thankful the written directions were much better than this retarded diagram. Steph suggested a non-knitter might have drawn it -- I tend to agree.


How is that eye shaped thing supposed to translate into this?

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Look what the mailman dragged in

I received a fantabulous gift in the mail today. It's a prize I won for my exceptional guessing skills.


Inside the package was some Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in pale pink! Oooh, how I love pale pink!


Some lovely ribbon featuring fruit that would kill me (citrus allergy -- I know, it's weird) if it was real.


Bias tape, again in pink. Do I sense an attempt at sewing something more challenging than curtains?


And some pretty paper!


Thank you so much Cristina. You're a peach!

Hey kids! You stink.

I almost spit out my tea when I saw this headline in our provincial paper.


Anyone obsessed with the English language will know why this headline is side-splitting funny. Any ideas? Okay, let me explain . . .

When I was working for a little radio station called CBC, I was called out to cover a fire in a seniors complex. There were fire engines, ambulances, police cars and media everywhere, watching while some 200 seniors were forced out of their apartment building. The fire ended up being pretty minor, I think it was just an electrical fire in the basement, but it cut out electricity to the building and the residents weren't allowed to return to the building until the next morning.

After interviewing some of the displaced seniors and the fire chief, I went back to the office and cut some tape for news. It was getting late, so I just left the scripts on the news desk for the morning news guy to vet in the morning.

The next day, when I arrived at the station, the morning show director smiled at me and asked me about "evacuating 200 seniors." She said the morning crew got quite a kick out of my scripts, and everyone laughed. I consider myself a nerd, a geek, a keener and a grammar queen, but I still wasn't quite sure what was wrong with my scripts. I was told that buildings are evacuated, not people. If emergency crews were "evacuating 200 seniors," that would mean they were giving emergency enemas to all those seniors. Ha, ha. I get it.

I never forgot that lesson and I read or hear that same mistake at least once a week in the news. Sometimes, if I know the reporter, I'll call and tell them my story, but usually I just have a chuckle while imagining paramedics and firefighters saying, "Okay, this building is on fire, but before we evacuate the building, let's give all the residents enemas. Ready, set, GO!"

That's why I nearly spit out my tea this morning. "Students evacuated due to sickening odour." Pure journalistic GOLD.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Ready, Set, Lace!

I'm nearing the end of the 60 inch "lace track" and I can see the finish line. Just a few more laps (or pattern repeats) to go.


Monday, April 16, 2007

Let's play a game!

What is it?


Is it a kitty blanket?


No, but that's Moustache's secret wish. He loves alpaca yarn and the silk just makes it more luxurious against his furry bits. I was surprised he didn't attack the "kitty blanket" when I placed it on him, he just posed like a good little kitty.

Well, if you've been reading my blog at all, you'll know this is the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight in progress. I've finished the inner rectangle and have started working on the lacy border . . . only I had to rip it back after seven or eight pattern repeats because I ended up with a couple of holes where they weren't supposed to be. Here it is after two pattern repeats.


I was able to knit quite a bit over the last few days because my Dad is in the hospital recovering from open heart surgery. He's fine, he had to have a valve replaced, but it's still quite a big ordeal. I'm glad I'm a knitter because I don't know if I could handle all the waiting around in the hospital if I didn't have something to busy my hands!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Hey Mother Nature! Make up your damn mind.


See that white stuff on the ground, behind the daffodils? That's snow. Mother Nature teased us with several days of gorgeous spring weather, but today, walloped us with a snowstorm. Thanks a lot ma'am. I'm just glad I haven't taken the snow tires off my car yet.

Mr. MacBook is back from his sojourn in Apple Land. The lower left corner of the screen is still a little wonky, but I'd rather live with the wonkiness than shell out $700 to have it fixed. Yup, $700. I understand that the screen is physically half of the computer, but there's no need to charge more than half of what I paid for it to repair it. I'm still going to call Apple to see if I can make a deal, but in the meantime, I'm living with a speckled screen.


In knitting news, I'm plugging away at the Lacy Hug-Me-Tight. I was sick with a cold last week, so I didn't knit all that much between naps, cough syrup, sneezing, decongestant tablets and vegging out on the couch. But the cushy softness of silk and alpaca makes me feel splendid and I'm excited about diving back into knitting endless rows of 2 x 2 rib, only because it means I'm getting that much closer to knitting the lacy bits.


P.S. This colour is amazing. So pretty