I don’t know what’s with me lately, but I’m always freezing and always exhausted. And not just “oh I’m kinda tired”. I mean falling-asleep-at-my-desk-at-work tired. Last night I fell asleep so fast that I didn’t even have time to put in the earplugs I usually sleep with because Yannick’s snoring is so loud. And I didn’t wake up until 7am. THAT’S tired!

I know, I know, it’s 11:30pm and I’m posting when I could be sleeping. I’m just doing a quick install of some software on my Palm and then I’m crashing, I swear. I had planned to go to bed so early tonight, but CSI and Without A Trace were both new episodes and I convinced myself that I just HAD to stay up and watch, because Valentine’s Day is in about 2 1/2 weeks and I need to get a move on Yannick’s Mega Socks which I finally frogged and restarted last night. (That frog was for you Robyn). 🙂

At least tomorrow I get a good night’s sleep, somewhat. In an attempt to suck up for ditching me the other night, Yannick wanted to go out to a coffee shop somewhere and knit together. The plans he ditched from were to knit together because he’s still working on that blankie for me, and he thinks by volunteering to do it publicly that he’ll earn some extra credit. Normally he would, but Saturday I need to be up nearly at the crack of dawn to be at my mom’s ‘cus all the bridal party women are pilling into her van and meeting the other bridal party chicks at a bridal salon for 8am. And the salon is on Chabanel, like 30 minutes drive time. Well, Saturday 7:30am…maybe 20 minutes. Still, it means waking up reeeeeallly early. Luckily Yannick agreed to work for me so I can go with and see what my bridesmaids et al try on, so instead of going to work afterwards I think I’ll come home and nap.

Today is my aunt’s birthday, so after work I went out with her, my mom, my other aunt and my cousin to Daou, a Lebanese restaurant on Marcel Laurin. Apparently it’s THE birthday spot to go to, because 9 tables were occupied, and 8 of them had birthdays! When it’s your birthday all of a sudden a loud tape comes on playing the Lebanese version of “Happy Birthday” and I swear it came on 8 times, and 8 times they brought out baklava or some other dessert for the birthday people. Kinda funny. The food was great though. It was my first time there and I would definately go back.

Yesterday I did manage to make a swatch on the bulky machine with the Homespun yarn. It took a lot of effort. I wound up making only 2 samples, as seen below:

The Homespun gauge is 14 sts/20 rows = 4″ st st. The narrow-looking part was done on every needle at the loosest setting (10.2 I think). The looser part was done on the tightest setting (0) but on every other needle.

Here’s the thing. Both are pretty close on the stitch count. Every needle gives me 14 sts to the 4″ on the nose. Every other needle gives me 13.5, and the jacket is too large anyways so I can play with that. Unfortunately I’m not even close with the row count. Counting 20 rows on the tighter one gives me barely 3″, and on the looser one I get around 3.25″/3.5″. I know that the pattern is basically a rectangle and I can recalculate my gauge to make it the correct length…I just don’t know if I want to bother. I can barely see anything with this yarn and my skill on the machine isn’t that good. It’s common for me to have an odd loop at the edge of a row from not pulling the yarn taut enough, or to accidentally drop a stitch. A big part of me is leaning towards doing this by hand just so I have complete control over it, because I really feel that when I use the machines I’m NOT in control.

We’ll see. I’ll ask Yannick later which fabric he likes better- the one from the machine or mine by hand, as I have about 4″ done so far. My fabric has more drape, that’s for sure. There’s nothing stopping me from doing it by hand. It’s slower, and I have to keep scrunching the yarn down ‘cus it bunches up along the core. But it’s soft, and a relaxing, easy knit. I just feel so silly having 2 knitting machines and not using them, especially on a pattern as easy as this one.

Oh- I finished 1 Fibonacci sock last night! I’ll post a pic tomorrow.

This just popped into my head: I love the texture and the feel of this stuff, and I can’t wait to cuddle up in my jacket. Just the more I think that I could probably do it on the machine, the more I’m loathe to keep working on it by hand. I know I tried Homespun on my new standard bed machine and I couldn’t get it working. I’m thinking if I try to swatch it up on the bulky machine I might have more luck. Hmm. A project for tomorrow I think.

Can you see what this is? I couldn’t believe it when I saw it…it’s a giant can of Red Bull Energy Drink! This pic is taken right at the corner of the street I work on. I was heading away from work to the closest nursery, ‘cus I’m having issues with a cactus garden. Anyways, I thought the car with the giant can was so cute that I took a picture. 🙂

Can you see what this is? I couldn’t believe it when I saw it…it’s a giant can of Red Bull Energy Drink! This pic is taken right at the corner of the street I work on. I was heading away from work to the closest nursery, ‘cus I’m having issues with a cactus garden. Anyways, I thought the car with the giant can was so cute that I took a picture. 🙂

Haven’t really done much knitting over the weekend…in fact, haven’t done much of anything. Yannick went up north Thursday morning for a few days, so Thursday night I was on my own. I thought I’d get so much done, but I only get home from work at 8:30, and by the time I got into bed I had such a headache and have been so utterly bone-tired lately…I knit a few rows on my Homespun jacket and then did 1/2 an hour of puzzles over the phone with my brother Mike. You know I was close to a migraine when I called him after only 1/2 an hour to stop playing!

Friday night Yannick was still up north, so again I thought I’d get SO MUCH done. Hm. I don’t think I knit at ALL Friday night. I’ve been playing a video game called Beyond Good & Evil, and was so addicted that I worked on that all night.

Saturday I worked, then Yannick came home really late. We went for supper around 9pm at Oggi, the new place that replaced Spaggio’s. The food was good…but… Let’s see: the decor is almost exactly the same. The menu has less choices than before, but the prices are about the same (under 20$ for almost every main course, basic meals starting around $11). The main difference? The portions are tiny! Everyone knew that at Spaggio’s you’d be buying dinner and lunch for the next day ‘cus the portions were so huge. I ordered a calzone (kudos for having whole wheat pizza crust, although why no whole wheat pasta?) and the size was pretty big. I couldn’t finish it. Yannick’s pasta, however, didn’t even fill the center depression of his plate. Really small portion, so small that I was thisclose to saying something about it. The only consolation was the OHMYGODTHISISNOWMYFAVORITECAKEEVER slice of Reese’s Pieces cake. Oh my. dietdietdiet. After dinner we came home and started watching Mad TV. Since it was a repeat we switched to Saturday Night Live at 11:30 but were both so tired that we shut it off and went to sleep. I don’t know what’s up with me lately but I’m constantly tired and usually very cold.

This morning I was a good girl and went to Curves and worked off that slice of cake I shared with Yannick last night. After getting home and showering we went to try out that new breakfast place near us called CofeToast (their spelling error, not mine). It was good although my omelet was a bit watery, but my fault for not asking for “well done”. I came home after ‘cus Yannick had to go help a friend with car troubles, so I decided to tackle what was left of my video game. [insert drumroll here] I beat the game! I’m so proud of myself!!! I don’t usually play video games that aren’t on the PC ‘cus I’m not too good at the controls and I really don’t like fighting games, I prefer puzzles and strategy stuff. I like to walk into a room and have to figure out that if I move that block over here and jump on it then get the light to reflect in the mirror before the sun sets that I can get to the next room…etc. Well, not only did I play the entire game by myself (except for one boss I had Yannick beat ‘cus after dying 3 times I got fed up) I finished the whole thing, INCLUDING the Big Boss at the end. Who is absolutely evil. And annoying. But I DID IT!!! I keep switching between flying high with pride and being really sad that the game’s over. I don’t think I’ll find another game that I can handle like this one. There wasn’t too much fighting, and the game didn’t let you fall off ledges and stuff, which would be a problem for me anywhere else ‘cus I can’t handle the controls too well.

Yannick picked me up at supper time and we went to my parents’ house. My aunt Fran was over, as well as my other aunt Miriam who just got back from spending a month or so touring alone around China. She brought some stuff home for all of us, as did my parents from their cruise this holiday season. Wanna see what I got? See below!

Can you see what this is? I couldn’t believe it when I saw it…it’s a giant can of Red Bull Energy Drink! This pic is taken right at the corner of the street I work on. I was heading away from work to the closest nursery, ‘cus I’m having issues with a cactus garden. Anyways, I thought the car with the giant can was so cute that I took a picture. 🙂

This yarn is a gift from Auntie Mimi, brought all the way from Hong Kong! You’d be amazed to see how excited I was to get yarn, actually dancing around the kitchen and making everyone touch it. The pink ones have a texture similar to an extremely soft terry cloth, and the blue one is actually 3 strands, a thin pale blue, a slightly thicker dark blue, and an even thicker gray that together all feel like a polar sweat suit. Now I need to figure out how to gauge the yardage! I’m guessing I can take out a pre-measured amount, weigh it, then weigh the whole thing and do the math. If anyone has a better idea (short of me buying that $30 US gadget) let me know!

This yarn is a gift from Auntie Mimi, brought all the way from Hong Kong! You’d be amazed to see how excited I was to get yarn, actually dancing around the kitchen and making everyone touch it. The pink ones have a texture similar to an extremely soft terry cloth, and the blue one is actually 3 strands, a thin pale blue, a slightly thicker dark blue, and an even thicker gray that together all feel like a polar sweat suit. Now I need to figure out how to gauge the yardage! I’m guessing I can take out a pre-measured amount, weigh it, then weigh the whole thing and do the math. If anyone has a better idea (short of me buying that $30 US gadget) let me know!

This yarn is a gift from Auntie Mimi, brought all the way from Hong Kong! You’d be amazed to see how excited I was to get yarn, actually dancing around the kitchen and making everyone touch it. The pink ones have a texture similar to an extremely soft terry cloth, and the blue one is actually 3 strands, a thin pale blue, a slightly thicker dark blue, and an even thicker gray that together all feel like a polar sweat suit. Now I need to figure out how to gauge the yardage! I’m guessing I can take out a pre-measured amount, weigh it, then weigh the whole thing and do the math. If anyone has a better idea (short of me buying that $30 US gadget) let me know!