Thursday, June 28, 2007

Toe be or not toe be a klutz

This was supposed to be a post about the progress I'm making on my preppy polo top, but it's changed to bring you an important note about the dangers of being a big idiot.

We've moved into the new house (yay! I'll post photos once we're all settled in) and I went outside on our patio to take some photos of the polo top. I've finished knitting the back and I'm working on the front. I've got one skein of yarn left and the skein that Brown Sheep is sending me to make up for the gimpy one I got is in the mail.


After taking some photos, I walked into the kitchen through the patio doors, except, unlike normal people, I didn't lift my foot high enough to make it over the bottom track of the sliding doors and mashed my big toe. I squealed and squirmed in pain and I knew right away I had broken some of those cute little bones I broke in the same toe last April. My husband ran to me, only to tell me that I'm retarded. Thanks honey, I knew that.

When I finally mustered the courage to remove my sock and take a look at said toe, I was pretty grossed out. Of course, I must share the gruesome sight with you. Here's my icky toe.


Of course, breaking a toe is bad enough, but the musical I'm in debuts in one week and in addition to singing and acting, I'm supposed to dance. Not just any dance, I'm supposed to do the can-can. I foresee lots of painkillers before opening night . . .

Thursday, June 21, 2007

All work and no play

Okay, so my job is fun and it can be playful, but I haven't posted in a while because I've been working and traveling so much, I feel as though I'm gearing up for an election. I attended our annual party convention last weekend, where I got about 10 minutes of knitting done, and I just came back from a two-day caucus event on the South Shore, where the knitting needles didn't even make it out of the bag.

And on top of chasing MLAs across the province (good imagery, eh?), I'm running around town trying to get everything that comes along with buying a house done. The packing process has commenced, but we've still got a long way to go . . . and we're moving this weekend!



I have no knitting progress to show you, just a photo of good ol' Jackie L. He spoke at our convention and, despite the low light, I managed to snap one decent photo.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Holy jeez! This is knot cool.

An Update! The kind folks at Brown Sheep Company are putting a skein of Cotton Fleece in the mail for me. In the meantime, I frogged the sweater back to where the yarn thinned out and I'm slowly progressing.

I've been working on this Preppy Polo Shirt from Not Another Teen Knitting Book and I noticed something funny today.


See that line where my knitting seems to go from thick to thin? Yeah, I see that too. It happens right where I encountered a knot in my skein of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the yarn went from having four distinct plies to having three.


Not cool.

I e-mailed Brown Sheep and I'm waiting to hear back. I'll have to rip my work back until I get to where the knot was. The thinness is too noticeable to leave the way it is. Argh!

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

FO: Trellis!


Trellis is finally done and, surprisingly, I finished seeming it on the same day Baby Philip was born.

Pattern: Trellis by
Source: Knitty
Materials: one big honkin' 225 g skein of Eco-Fil yarn (75% cotton, 25% acrylic)
Needles: US 6/4 mm bamboo straights
Started: May 11, 2007
Finished knitting: June 2, 2007


Notes: This pattern was quick and easy. All the cables made it interesting and fun to knit. The yarn was a Christmas gift from my best friend and I think it comes from coughWalMartcough. The ball band says it's recycled yarn and it knit up surprisingly well. My only qualm is the way it came out after I washed and blocked it. It looks fine, but it bled like crazy when I washed it. It also took three days to dry and it's still kind of damp and (here's the kicker) it kind of smells funny. I washed it by hand, but I think I'll throw it in the washing machine to see whether the smell goes away. Does anyone have any advice on washing the funky smell away?


The chocolate brown buttons are vintage Modella from my Gramie's button stash. The button card even lists the price as 29¢!

Oh yeah, and I should add that the sweater is indeed red and not pink as it appears. I am a firm believer in boys wearing pink, but I don't think I need to inflict my beliefs on a newborn. He can decide for himself whether he wants to wear pink when he grows up.

I also got this cell phone cozy done for a friend. I'm sure you'll recognize the yarn as leftover from my sunny socks. The cozy fits his Motorolla Razr perfectly!