Colour Week: Blue

Colour week is coming to an end and I really enjoyed it. Here are today's blues.

Macaws at the biodome.

I had never seen this stuff in person until I visited Ariadne Knits. I had to get a bottle to see what all the fuss is about.

And this, just because everyone is so Habs crazy here.

Colour Week: Red

We had a fantastic day in Montreal. We went to the biodome and the insectarium and then met up with one of the greatest gals I have ever met . . . but I'll save that for a subsequent post. Here are some of the red objects I spotted today.

some unidentified red flowers in the biodome's tropical forest.

a roseate spoonbill.

some ladybug magnets in the insectarium's gift shop.

Colour Week: Orange

More colour week fun! Thanks again to Leya for hosting. You can visit her blog for the list of all the colour week participants.

I don't know whether these onions are orange, but I liked the way they look against the blue wall.

I've noticed that orange signs in Montreal are particularly bright. Perhaps that's so they don't get ignored . . .

An ornate orange roof on Ave. des Pins.

Colour Week: Yellow

I'm really enjoying colour week. I've been seeing yellow everywhere today!

Yellow yolks for breakfast.

We took the train from Ottawa to Montreal today and, of course, our tickets were yellow.

We'll be staying with some fantastic friends in Montreal until Saturday morning. One of those friends happens to be a former German professor.

Colour Week: Green

Leya is hosting a colour week and I've decided to take part in order to force myself to take more photos while we're on vacation. Hubby and I are in Ottawa today and we're going to Montreal tomorrow. I'm planning to meet up with a couple bloggers while I'm in these parts!

I love Nunavut's crest. And I love how so many things are coppery green in Ottawa.

The tulips are almost ready to flower!

I bought this in Halifax yesterday. I am so looking forward to reading it! Weren't we all Anne-aholics when we were little girls?

Flu and gifts

I'm on my sixth day of battling the flu from hell. Will you do me a favour, blog friends? Remind me to get the flu shot next year. No procrastinating. No excuses. I must never get a flu like this again. Thanks.

Way too long ago, I got this lovely "petit oiseau" in the mail from Claudia. I kept meaning to blog about it, but I got really busy with work and then pummeled by this flu . . .

Claudia really like the snowgirl with camera ATC that I did for Project Spectrum, so I told her I'd make a special one for her. She said she'd send me something sweet in exchange. I was really happy to receive this bird because I had secretly been coveting it (as seen in her Flickr profile pic). Thanks again!

Sherrie is selling some beautiful shaving kits in her shop. I bought one from her for Jesse (no special occasion, just an "I love you" gift).

When he was opening it up, he first saw the mug and said, "I don't drink coffee!" Then he saw the soap and said, "I don't care about soap!" Then he saw the brush and said, "Oh! Cool!" His old shaving mug has a cartoon pig on it and the brush is ragged. It was definitely time for an upgrade. Thanks Sherrie!

And speaking of Sherrie, she just had a birthday. I am giving her the Birdie mitts, but I had to wrap them up unfinished. The second mitt still looks like this. I haven't worked on it at all this week because my fingers still ache from the flu.

I see a white wall and I want it painted . . .

Mint green!



And aubergine!


Blogless Annie came over today to impart her vast knowledge of painting (She has painted her entire three-storey house. She knows a thing or two about painting walls.). We started first thing this morning and finished the kitchen by supper time! All the walls in the house were stark white when we moved in. I knew right away that I wanted to do some painting, but I thought it would be hard. Guess what? It's not hard at all!

Next up, painting the living room.

Happy Easter/Joyeuses Pâques

Easter egg cake recipe from Nigella Lawson's Feast.

*I just realized I made this same cake last year.

Six pack

Brenda tagged me for this "six random facts" meme. I have so many quirks, it's kind of tough to narrow it down to six!

1. My arms are incredibly long. They span nearly six feet . . . and I'm 5'5". This is why I think I may run out of yarn before I finish my Hourglass Sweater.

I love you this much!

2. As stated in a previous post, I yodel.

3. I'm allergic to kiwi, pineapple, all citrus fruits and most other tropical fruits. Yeah. Deathly allergic.

Don't worry, Mum! This isn't a real lemon.

4. I'm not a vegetarian, I'm just a picky eater. I don't like red meat and I haven't eaten any since Grade 8.

5. I can touch my elbows behind my back. It's supposed to be humanly impossible. Why can I do this? See quirk #1.

Freakish.

6. I am accident prone. As I type this, I have Band-Aids on two fingers. I seem to break my big toe yearly (I'm due for another break either this month or next, so watch out!) and I've dislocated both of my shoulders (not at the same time). I could go on and on . . .

I'm not going to tag anyone, but please, share some of your freakish quirks in the comments!

Pillow talk

When I ordered the fabric for Andrea's backpack, I may have ordered a couple half yards of some pink Joel Dewberry prints to make throw pillows for the bedroom. This weekend, I had the chance to make those pillows -- my first foray into patchwork. I think it went well.


I bought a couple of pillow forms at Michaels and loosely followed this tutorial to make these. I think they look quite happy nestled on the bed with the original big pillow made out of those place mats Sherrie gave me.


I haven't left knitting by the wayside! I've been diligently working away at an Hourglass sweater (ravelry link) in chocolate brown Noro Cash Iroha. It's so much fun knitting with this yarn. Mmmmm.


And I think my mitten mojo is coming back. I felt the urge to finally knit that second Birdie mitten the other day. I know, winter is almost over, but it would be nice to have two mittens. I'm just sayin'.

Like a teddy bear on heroin*

That's how cute this backpack is. I promised my cousin Andrea that I'd make her anything she wanted from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for her birthday. She chose the simple drawstring backpack and she said it could be in any colour, as long as it's not pink (she's hardly a girlie-girl).


I ordered some fabric from purl and decided to splurge on an Echino print since it's her birthday.


I love the way it turned out! It is painfully cute and I'm sure she'll like it. I sort of think I need one for myself . . . it's a good thing I ordered extra fabric.


And what am I toting around in this backpack? I'm strangely in love with this record. I had a thing for Robert Plant when I was about 5 years old. For some reason, I really liked his solo stuff from the 80s . . . even though it was absolutely dreadful. Back then, I had never heard of Led Zepplin and I loved this song. Then again, when I was 5, I also thought my Dad was John Lennon and Freddie Mercury was my best friend.

Yeah. I was an awesome kid.

*lyric from this tune.

She's got the look

New bangs for the weekend! Have a good one!

FO: Mary Jane slippers

I definitely needed a break after knitting the Bird In Hand mitt, so I decided to indulge in some Artyarns Supermerino and knit myself the cutest slippers ever.


Pattern: Mary Jane Slippers by Whitney van Nes
Source: the purl bee
Materials: 1.2 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino in colour #127 and bits of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Victorian Pink
Needles: US 6/4mm and US 5/3.75mm circular needles
Started: February 13, 2008
Finished: February 19, 2008

I love these. The toe looks a little funny because the sole peeks out a bit on top, but that doesn't bother me. I think it actually looks sort of neat. What can I say? It's a super pattern teamed up with super yarn.


And here's a gratuitous Moustache shot -- he's angry that I've turned his ball of supermerino into slippers.

1/2 FO: Bird In Hand mitt

As soon as I saw the Bird In Hand pattern, I knew I had to knit it. I had some red Briggs and Little yarn on hand that Sherrie picked up for $3.99/skein, which fits perfectly into Project Spectrum's fire theme. I've never tried colourwork before, but it was one of my goals for 2008. I'm happy to say I can cross that goal off my list!


I had visions of taking a photo like this, but torrential rains melted away all the snow yesterday, leaving only this tiny patch of dirty snow on our lawn. Sigh.


And, of course, here's the birdie!


You'll note there's only one mitten. Yeah. I will knit the second one soon, but I need a little break first. I'm sorry to say, this was not a fun knit. I used worsted weight yarn (as per the pattern) with 3.25 mm dpns and got gauge, but the fabric is so tight and was really hard on my fingers. The braid was a huge challenge for me. It took me an hour to work each braid. Maybe I'm slow, I dunno, but I found those three braids really friggin' tedious (they look great, though!). Also (this is my last complaint, I promise), the mitten was so lumpy, bumpy and ugly after I finished it, I almost frogged the whole thing but I decided to try blocking it before giving up entirely -- I'm glad I did! A very rigorous block was just the trick and I'm happy with the way it looks now.

But I'm still not ready to knit the second mitten yet.

Oh! and Happy Valentine's Day!

Generosity

I was the lucky winner of a couple of books on Alison's blog (Thanks again!) and they arrived in my mailbox today!


I must say, I really like Classic Knits at Home, but Glamour Knits at Home is a little too frilly for my taste. There are a couple of patterns I like, but most of them are too fussy for me. Nevertheless, both books are filled with beautiful photographs.

Alison also included a couple of bookplates, which I love.


I casually mentioned to Blogless Annie how deeply I love the way rosemary and mint smell together, as in the Aveda shampoo. She surprised me by whipping up a batch of Mintmary soap! Folks, I wish this was a scratch and sniff blog because this soap smells divine. I want to keep a bar in my pocket at all times, just to take a whiff every few minutes. Mmmm . . .


I still have a few pieces of cake leftover. Who says you can't have cake for breakfast?


P.S. I am still knitting. I have a fiery WIP for Project Spectrum to show you soon!

When it's a blinding blizzard outside,

it's the perfect day to hunker down and bake a cake!


This is my all-time favourite cake. It's Nigella's Chocolate Raspberry Heart from Feast. I could eat this entire cake by myself, but I think I'll take it over to Sherrie's for knitting group tonight.

Oh yeah, and I also made the local rag last week. Yup. That's me, yodeling up a storm.

Antique sale find

Sherrie, Blogless Annie and I went to a antique sale this morning and I came home with a pink glass bedside water carafe. Here it is with the cover on:


And with the cover, which doubles as a glass, off:


I always have a glass of water on my bedside table, but it inevitably gathers dust on the surface overnight. This little carafe solves that problem and looks pretty darn cute too!

FO: The Hubby Hat

Jesse has never wanted anything hand knit. On occasion, I'll show him patterns I think he'd like (Cobblestone, anyone?), but he always scrunches up his face and shakes his head. So, you can understand why I was so surprised when he asked me to knit him a hat. What kind of hat? He didn't know. I showed him a few patterns, all of which got the same response as Cobblestone, until one day when we were driving in Halifax I spotted a pedestrian sporting a ribbed hat with two stripes. Do you want one like that? Yes, he said. So, I started searching Ravelry for a nice pattern. He approved this one:


Pattern: The Boyfriend Hat by Stephanie Nicole
Source: Stephanie Likes to Knit
Materials: 2.25 skeins of Mission Falls 1824 wool in Ink and scraps of the same yarn in Stone
Needles: US 8/5 mm bamboo dpns
Started: February 2, 2008
Finished: February 5, 2008

Mods: I knit the hat one inch longer, so it covers his ears.

Check out those decreases! They're the reason I chose this pattern. I just love the way they look.

Jesse models his hat while Moustache looks on

The hat is a hit with its new owner. He couldn't model it outside today because it's raining, but he says he's looking forward to wearing it while skating on the lake.

FO: Monkey socks

I can just barely hear my feet sigh when I slip on these socks. They're lovely. I've been wanting to knit a pair of Monkeys for a while and they were a joy to knit -- 3683 Ravelers don't lie.


Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Source: knitty
Materials: 2 skeins of Oceanwind Knits merino in blu
Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm Addi Turbos
Started: January 23, 2008
Finished: February 1, 2008

Mods: The cuff. I hate knitting through the back loop, so I just knit a standard 1x1 rib.


The yarn: I fell for this yarn when I knit Mum's Hedgerows. People! This yarn is perfect! Squishy, soft, shiny, bouncy, the perfect semi-solid colourways -- I can't say enough about it. I sincerely hope it wears well, because I want to wear these socks everyday.


The pattern: One word: addictive. It took me 10 days to knit these and I'm not the speediest knitter, but I couldn't put these socks down. The pattern is easy to memorize, which is nice because it looks impressive, but it's not hard at all.

Verdict: I don't want to take them off of my feet.