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I Need To Sit Down

So over the weekend Yannick and I were talking about how we might like to move after the wedding. We were also talking about our honeymoon, which we plan on taking in Scotland. I joked to my mom that the whole reason for choosing Scotland was for the yarn…that I’d be smuggling a sheep home in my luggage.
My mom glared at Yannick and said “You’re not letting her bring a sheep home.”
Yannick: It’s not such a bad idea.
Me: I was kidding, both of you.
Yannick: Actually, it’s not a bad idea.
Me: You said you wanted to buy a rental property. We can’t have sheep in an apartment.
Yannick: Actually, I was thinking of buying a farm.
Me: We’d live on a farm?
Yannick: Yeah, and you’d get some sheep.
Me: We’re going to raise sheep?
Yannick: Why not?
Me: I know people who spin, don’t say this if you’re not serious!
Yannick: I am serious.

Hmm….I see spinning in my future.


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OD on Pictures Day

First of all, here’s Sam. He’s our little boy, our sweetheart, our “furry child”.
He’s also feeling kinda left out since we left him home alone when we went off to TO and we barely put pics of him on here. S0 here he is.

This is what I’ll be working on tonight. I volunteered to my LYS that I would be available for doing finishing work if they ever had any clients who don’t like to finish their knits. Turns out they have a number of clients who don’t like the finishing process. This is the first “job” I took on, I’ll see how this goes (finishing someone else’s stuff, not knowing if or what errors they’ve made) then decide if I take more on. I need to rip the collar then undo the 3ndl BO on one of the shoulders since it was supposed to have been left open and closed with buttons. Then I need to pick up sts and reknit the collar, only open this time instead of in the round. Then seam the sides and sleeves.

Ok, this is for those of you who say there are never any pics of me on here. Voila- a gazillion.
This is a collage my mom made for the party last night.

Let’s all pretend that we don’t see the dance photo.

This is the progress so far on the Comfort Clapotis. I’ve included my glasses (yes, I wear. I just live in my contact lenses) for scale. I know I still have quite a bit to go on, but luckily the intended recipient has left the hospital and seems to be doing well, so maybe this will turn out to be a Celebratory Clapotis instead of a Comfort one.

This is some additions to my stash, thanks to the lovely and talented Veronik. She sent along some odds and ends with Mona to the last Wednesday knitting meetup, and we got to pick and choose what we wanted. We were like vultures I tell you, vultures! The blue wool will end up as clogs unless I can think of something else, the reddish stuff will become a short-rowed hat, and the purples will definately become a scarf for me. It’s nice and thick and skwooshy. (Can someone please tell me how to spell skwooshy? Not squishy…skwooshy.)
Ok, this last shot is for me, but I’m putting it here anyways. I don’t have any photos of last night yet but I really like how Sarah did my hair (from St-Laurent Coiffure on Decarie) and I’m really impressed that it still looked cute even today (don’t say ewww, I’m washing it tonight) when I was too lazy to pull out all the bobby pins last night. This doesn’t really do it justice ‘cus you can’t see the back, but Yannick’s not home and my arms aren’t long enough, and figuring out the timer thing on my camera just to take a pic of the back of my head when no one out there even reads my blog or cares what the back of my head looks like is way too much effort when I have better things to do.

So to Robbie and Jason, if you’re reading this, here are pics of me. You’re probably not but you’re the only two who complain that there are no pics of me, so here they are. To everyone else, more on the party at another point…I’ve got knitting to do.

To Snarsh…who are you? Do you have a blog? I’m so curious!

And yes, the answer to Friday night’s question is: they forgot Canada. Seriously. Entire country. Doesn’t exist. Who knew?


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Highlights from Toronto

Getting into Mike’s car with 5 hours of knitting/travel time ahead of me and realizing, right at the exact moment I pull the Comfort Shawl out of my bag that it really wants to be a Clapotis. And that I don’t have the pattern with me. Luckily I had a sock to work on.
—–
Laura: Look at all the ducks!
Yannick: Those aren’t ducks.
Laura: What are they?
Yannick: They’re “arondeles”.
Laura: English please?
Mike: “Onion rings”.
—–
Laura: I used to be afraid of blowing my nose.
—–
Playing 8,000,000,000 rounds of the “movie” game, where you name an actor/actress and go around the circle naming movies that person has been in. Last one who can name one wins.
—–
Mike (trying to remember the title of a movie): Oh come on…I can see her…with another actor…and they’re…acting…
—–
Laura: I feel like we’re driving to Toronto.
Me: Um, we are driving to Toronto.
Laura: What? No, I meant I feel like we’re driving to Florida.
—–
Laura: They added something to the Doritos and they’re too spicy.
Mike: Spice?
—–
(the actor just named for the movie game is Sylvester Stallone)
Laura: Rocky
Me: Rocky 2
Mike: Rocky 3
Yannick: Rocky 4
Laura: I don’t know how many there are!
—–
Laura: I used to think the Boy Scouts were something that was invented for movies.
—–
(the actor just named for the movie game is Keanu Reeves)
Mike, Yannick and Laura take their turns.
Me: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Laura: huh?
Mike, Yannick and Laura take their next turns.
Me: Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
Laura: What are these words?
—–
Getting to Toronto and having our wonderful house-host let me use his computer to print off the Clapotis pattern, then not staring while I sat in the stairwell and ripped out the entire Comfort Shawl, henceforth to be known as the Comfort Clapotis.
—–
Playing pool (horribly) with Mike while Jonny jammed on his guitar.
—–
The bar mitzvah in the morning and seeing a lot of family I haven’t seen in a while.
—–
Relaxing at Miriam’s in the afternoon with most of my family sound asleep (and Mike waking up in a Japanese bamboo hat).
—–
The “out of towner’s” dinner at a local hotel that had the Swollen Members’ tour bus outside.
(I forgot to take a picture and it was gone when we left).
Also: my 9 year old cousin running around all night saying “I think the Swollen Members are here somewhere.”
—–
Hanging out by the pool table knitting the Comfort Clapotis.
(Laura, me, cousin Lindsay)
——
Group photo!

cousin Lindsay (TO), Aaron, (front) Mike (back) cousin Jonny (MTL), me, Yannick, cousin Neil (TO), Laura
—–
What’s that on my shoulders? Oh yes, it’s my Tasha Tudor shawl!
Gotta love Noro!

—–
The party Sunday which had an entire casino themed for kids…blackjack and poker tables and the coolest kid-friendly hors d’oevres: mini cupcakes (like the size of a loony), latkas (potato pancakes), and individual spoons of Mac ‘n Cheese. To top it all off: dessert was an ice cream bar!
—–

The happy couple at the hotel.
—–
By the time it was too dark to knit on the way home Sunday night I’d finished reknitting everything I’d ripped from the Comfort Shawl cum Clapotis and was actually able to do a few rows of straight progress. Woo hoo!
—–
Got home at night to a very hungry/affectionate/indifferent cat, our home, and our bed.
It was fun to be away, but it’s always nice to be back home.


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Where in the World am I?

I was browsing the movie sites ‘cus Yannick and I are going to the movies to have a nice, relaxing night before all the madness ensues tomorrow night.

This: http://www.iceagemovie.com/ is the official website for Ice Age 2 (the sequel to Ice Age).

Please, go there and tell me what’s wrong with it. Seriously, SERIOUSLY wrong with it. If you can’t figure it out, I’ll tell you tomorrow. But really, it’s wrong. So wrong that I want to write to them about it.

p.s. We’re going to see Failure to Launch. I figure a date-movie is appropriate the night before our engagment party.


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It IS Spring, Right?

This is the view from my front door. I should be confused…except this happens every year.

Happy Spring everyone!

I had a great time in TO over the weekend. Many amusing things occurred…most involving my family. I will put together a post of highlights as soon as my mom sends me over some pics ‘cus I forgot to bring our camera. (Ok, I forgot we even had a camera, and that we would be going somewhere camera-worthy).

I ditched going to my sister’s fashion show tonight. Don’t label me a horrible sister, she’s in 1 number right at the end that lasts about 2.5 minutes, and I’ve already seen hundreds of her dance and fashion shows. The main thing drawing me to this one was that it is hosted by Jenna and Ethan…that would be 2 winners of the TV show Survivor, and a couple, last I bothered checking. I was all excited until I woke up this morning to rain and a migraine. Plus my online TV guide didn’t work so I couldn’t tape anything…and then it hit me. I don’t need to go to a Jewish youth organization’s fashion show so I can see TV celebrities. My mom was in a movie. Technically my sister was too. I was in a made-for-TV movie. My entire immediate family was in a show on Life Network. My brother did a season of reality TV in Australia. My other brother is an extra in TV and actual coming-to-theaters movies. My cousin is a TV reporter. My other cousin works with Michael Moore and other big names. Why do I need to go sit in a crowd and be a faceless, nameless blob amongst others just to catch a glimpse of 2 people who were on TV a few times? I can pick up the phone and call a few such celebrities any time I want.

I’d rather knit.


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I Spanked My Yarn

It deserved it, trust me.

I was going to post pics last night. In my head, the plan was to go home from work, sit down and knit on the Comfort Shawl. Then I remembered that I’ll be in TO this weekend and besides the CS I wanted something brainless and smaller to work on, so I figured “I’ll cast-on a quick pair of socks”. Painless, right? Yeah. Well. I grabbed the orange/red sunrise-looking hank of sock yarn I bought in Vermont with the girls last October. 75% wool, 25% nylon, irresistable colors…I thought it would be easy. I took my ball winder and the hank and went down to the kitchen so I could weigh the hank on the digital scale and wind 2 equal-sized cakes (1 for each sock). I started winding at 9pm.

I was done at MIDNIGHT. Arghhhh!!!! It was smooth sailing straight into Tangle City, with a right turn at Lottsa-Knottsa Avenue. 3 FREAKING hours to wind 2 cakes that ended up being NOT the same weight. I have one that’s 48g and the other is 64g so I’ll make the first toe-up sock with the smaller one and try to use it all…knowing I’ll have a bit left over on the other ball.

I was so mad I actually spanked the yarn. (Well, I smacked it with an open palm- does that count?) There are no pics of the before, during or after because a) I thought it would take about 20 minutes and then I’d be up in bed, knitting, and b) I was too aggrivated once I was done to look at the orange blobs a moment longer. At least these socks will be for me.

So my TO knitting checklist:
-Comfort Shawl and 1 spare skein (just in case)
-Sunrise Socks
-knit-kit with scissors, measuring tape, etc…
-socks book that reminds me how to do the weird wrappy cast-on for the toe-up socks

I’m thisclose to bringing Clapotis too but I think that’s pushing it. My main priority is the shawl, I’m only bringing the sock because the shawl is too big to risk pulling out in the restaurant. I think I can get away with the sock if I knit under the table.


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…and a good time was had by all…

…I hope.

Last night we had an “unofficial” knitting meetup. Most of us assumed that we would be having one, because there wasn’t one last week. Turns out that March has 3 Wednesdays, and with how the dates fall, next week is our “official” meeting. Whatever. We still had a good turnout of about 10 or so knitters, and still talked, laughed and knit until the wee hours. (I left at 9:30pm, so I’m guessing about the “wee hours” part).

I worked on the Comfort Shawl, which is what I just decided to name the shawl/pillow thingie for my family friend (see last post). Pics later, since my phone doesn’t seem to want to email them over on demand.