1978

I just read Rick Mercer's latest blog post. In it he tells that "a billion seconds ago it was 1978." Wow. That's a crazy amount of seconds and a crazy mountain of time. He refers to how much our current government is planning to squander, er...I mean spend. And he uses the billion seconds to show us the enormity of what a billion is. We love Rick...he tells it like it is.

Hmmm...I wonder if I've knit a billion stitches yet?

New and Different Mac

Today I bought a MacBook Air. Now this is largely different from our other Mac. This one's pretty in a different way. And so much more schleppable; it only weighs 3 lbs, and it's not measured in 4 inch increments. I think I'll call her MiniMac. Now that I've gotten through the wireless Internet snarlies, things are good.

One day soon...very soon, I'll have knitterly pictures and news. I've been working on Mrs. Beetons', a hotwater bottle cover, EZ Mitered Mittens, a Doodlebug sweater for toddler Chase, and I bought a skein of Lucy Neatby's Cat's Pajamas in the Fiesta colourway (80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, and 10% Nylon). The colours remind me of the vibrant colours seen on Macaw parrots: intense blues, reds, yellows, and greens. This yarn is meant for socks but I'm going to knit up her Sea Lettuce scarf with it.

The Snowdrop shawl is still kind of in a time out. It hasn't really misbehaved; I just need some distance from it for a bit...what with the mohair and all.

I bought Elizabeth Lovick's Fair Isle Workbook. It came highly recommended from Barb of Wild Geese Fibres. Check out some of the hand painted yarn Barb sells, and her patterns are lovely.

To quote Elizabeth's site, "It [the workbook] is arranged in separate ‘lessons’ on the theory and practice of Fair Isle knitting, including detailed instructions with lots of clear photos of topics such as ways to hold the yarns, steeking and dealing with mistakes." I told Barb I was preparing to make the Snowbird mittens, and she sent me the book link. I'll update as I progress with the mittens.

Now, back to my downloading...

Winds

Winds of change are blowing. Barack Obama was inaugurated today in the cool sunshine of Washington, DC. It was an auspicious and moving event. I cried when Aretha Franklin sang "Let Freedom Ring," and I cried again when Obama said: 'This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."

There is a song by the legendary Canadian rock band Rush, titled "Closer to the Heart," (Words by Neil Peart and Peter Talbot, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson) that with Obama's inauguration, may be moving from the abstract to something tangible and concrete. The song starts with the line: "And the men who hold high places must be the ones to start, to forge a new reality closer to the heart." Obama is the one who I believe could do this, and lead the world in a new approach to people, and governments, and how the world works. I watch with new hope for all of us.

Happy New Year

Well, our new year was swept in on a cold front. It was -34 when I got up this morning. Now it's a balmy -28. Great weather for staying in and knitting. I've been knitting and spinning up a storm. I finished the first pair of Mrs. Beeton's, am almost finished the shawl, finished the hat, and I spun up 100 gms of hunter green corriedale, which is lovely and soft.



I hope to finish the shawl today. Pictures of that soon...I hope.

Holidays

I'm hoping you're all having peaceful and warm holidays; I sure am. The heat wave we're experiencing right now sure beats the Siberian nightmare we've been in the last couple of weeks. Although there's something to be said for surviving -38 with a wind chill of -1,000,000,000. We Albertans are a tough breed if nothing else.

My husband decided on the 23rd that we should forget about time and just relax and get things done in as leisurely a fashion as they could be. This is an entirely new stance for him and it shows his growth this year. Me and my ADD brain rejoiced in this idea. We got done what had to get done and had a great time doing it. On Christmas Eve, we got a visit in with a special knitterly friend of mine. That was awesome and I hope we can make it an annual tradition.

I've made great head-way with the shawl; I got through the edge of the first side, through the point (with a great deal of phone advice from the aforementioned knitterly friend), and am now almost done the second and last edge. I'm a little nervous about whether my edge lace will end where it should when the shawl edge ends. I'm letting the plan for that percolate for a bit.

I've also been moving forward with the Mrs. Beeton's Wrist Warmers. I've got the two bells for the first one almost complete. This is my first beaded project, and I really like how the beads look with the yarn. Perhaps a future shawl will include beads.

(Click to embiggen to see the beads.)

I'm going to visit my alpacas today. I didn't bother when it was so bitter out; I know their fleece is keeping them toasty warm. I hope to do some spinning today. I've been wanting to get at the wheel, but the busy-ness of the last couple of weeks prevented it. I'm spinning some corriedale that is dyed a hunter green (purchased at Pam's Woolly Shop). I'm trying to spin my rovings in the order I purchased them which means it'll be a while before I can get to the lovelies that I bought at Celeigh Woolen Mill. But then again, this wheel spinning is so fast compared to spindle spinning. It may not be so long after all.

Next up are the Snowbird Mitts using this yarn.

When my shawl is done I'm going to start my Agatha. Can't wait for that. The Mission Falls is calling her name.

More about my New Year plans soon.

Dec. 14, 2008

My knitting of late: I'm putting the edge on my red Snowdrop Shawl. It's lovely, and easy, but soul-suckingly s-l--o---w. When I need a break from it I work on Mrs. Beeton's Victorian wristwarmers. They're going well, but looking humongous right now. I'm hoping they'll be right in the end; could that be the sound of knitter's denial? I'm too deep in it to pull my head out of the sand just yet. Knitterly denial truly runs deep, eh?

I hoped to debut the shawl at Mo's party last night, but I didn't get it finished. Her party was awesome. We had a great time, met lovely people, and enjoyed watching kids, who were ramped to the max with Christmas excitement. We look forward to next year's party. And Mo and Rick did a dance demo; they glid (my new past-tense version of glide) around the floor as if on air. I took ThatLoganChick's advice and used my triangular shawl swatch as a boobage shawl and tucked it in my bra so it would show under a green blouse. Worked great!

Then I hoped to have the shawl finished to wear to Anne's party tonight, but that's not going to happen either, sigh... (Anne is the woman who drove us to Medicine Hat and trailered Mac home. She rocks.) Now I'm hoping to wear it Christmas day. I think I can manage that goal. There it is again...the distinct sound of denial...did 'ya hear it?

I did a stash dive and came up with 100 gms of Welsh-made Prism worsted from Colinette yarns to make the purl arrows hat. It's calling me constantly. And I love it when I can shop in my own stash instead of spending more yarn dollars elsewhere. It's not like I don't support my LYS's. Hell, I should have partial ownership in them by now. I do love my LYS's.

Back to Knitting

Ok. Enough about horses already. On to more knitterly business.

TA-DA!!!!

My first handspun yarn on my wheel! This is 134 gms of lovely and natural corriedale, spun from roving bought from Marg at Celeigh Woolen Mill near Millet, Alberta. I spun it on my wheel and plied it on ThatLoganChick's Spinolution. Wow, her wheel can ply a load of singles. I'm waiting for this yarn to tell me what it'll be; I think mittens, but I'm not sure yet.

I'm moving forward with the Mrs. Beeton's wrist warmers. Pics to come soon.

I finished the Yellow Harvest Mitts (Vogue Knitting Fall 2008). My daughter is modeling them "Jennipoo" style. Thanks for the help Jennifer (of Nennie Knits). Jennifer gave me some assistance with the chart 1 for this pattern, as she had completed a pair already. We sat together at the Make One Knitting Retreat Pajama Party, where a good time was had by all.

Why are the cuffs so long you ask? Because I mistakenly knit 3 repeats of the cuff instead of 2. All the warmer I say. I'm loving making mittens. Jennifer introduced me to the Snowbird mittens, also in Vogue Knitting Fall 2008, so those are the latest mittens I'm gaga over. Really Jennifer, I'll stop copying everything you knit...really...

Miranda played in her high school band's Christmas concert this evening. This concert band and the jazz and stage bands at this school are absolutely amazing. They win top honours in every competition they participate in. In September the stage and jazz bands were invited to compete in an international music festival in Grimma, Germany. They were the only high school bands competing with adult bands from many countries around the world. They kicked butt as they always do. Miranda is in the concert band. I videoed one of their numbers tonight, but Blogger is not cooperating with me trying to add it to this post, and I'm not geeky enough to have it do my bidding. Yet. Stay tuned...