Had such a great night tonight! After work I went straight to the Wendy’s/Tim Horton’s at the corner of Sources and Hymus ‘cus Cynthia from the MKG arranged a meeting for people interested in helping out with the upcoming fair in October. I didn’t feel like going home first then back out, so even though the meeting didn’t start until 7:30 I got there around 6:30 and was planning on just hanging out. Turns out Cynthia was already there (with someone else- shoot I need to start learning everyone’s names!). I was going to get a snack at Wendy’s and then go sit down so I ordered a fruit bowl…and waited…and waited…after 25 minutes I finally asked for my money back. Everyone had to wait, they were so far behind! To give you a better idea of how messed up they were: while I was waiting a man came up to the counter and asked for the manager. He told her that he’d ordered a whatever burger with no onions. He opened up the burger wrapper- there was the bun, lettuce, tomato, onions- but no burger!

I wound up getting a cheese croissant from Tim’s. Knit my way through the meeting. Yannick came to join us ‘cus he wasn’t home last night and was trying to spend some time with me to make up for it. Oh, and the whole ferklempt thing? (To those non-Jews it kinda translates to overwhelmed, emotional, mishkabibbled…ok I can’t really translate it well.) One of the MKG members (I think her name is Daniella, again I really need to learn all the names!) brought her son Colin (or Collin). He’s 14 months old. And adorable. And spent most of the meeting in Yannick’s arms. [insert double-take here]

Picture me stunned!

For those who don’t know him, Yannick isn’t exactly a kid-friendly person. He’d sooner hold a cat than a baby, and runs at the first sight of drool or spit-up. Which is why stuff like this is such a good omen for the future!

[insert big, relieved grin here]

Now I have to go finish the Duffle Coat so I can deliver it tomorrow. I called the Wool Shop this morning and they have more of the buttons, so I can attach the last one there. I finished the button bands at the meeting, so I just need to sew the side seams, sew on the hood, pick up and rib the hood ribbing and sew on the buttons I have.

I feel really horrible that the pins I used to block the sleeves turned out not to be stainless steel and wound up rusting. I hear that Oxyclean gets out rust stains but I don’t have any, so I’ll have to give it as-is and just let them know. 😦

To Shell: Is his pronounced Ah-ron or Eh-rin? My bro is Eh-ron. Funny thing is at his old doc’s office when he was a kid there was a girl with his exact name! Erin instead of Aaron and our same last name but with a K instead of a C as the first letter. So we always had to specify if we were booking appointments for the boy or the girl. 🙂

To Danielle: Thanks for posting! 🙂 I hope you find those patterns eventually…or are really good at “winging it” lol. I had a crocheted sweater like that once. At least 3 years went by between starting it and finishing it, but by that point all that was left was the end of one sleeve and the seams. Took me 4 days to find where I’d stashed the pattern.

The knitting machine adventure went well yesterday.

First I brought it downstairs ‘cus I was a dummy and didn’t realize it clipped on to the front of my workspace. I thought the clamps went into the back and I wasn’t about to reach forwards over my kitchen table to use it. Luckily (even though it turned out unnecessary) I had a small, unused coffee table that worked perfectly. So I brought everything downstairs.

I had no problems setting everything up, but it took some trial and error to get it all working in what I imagined to be the right way. I decided to be productive with my playing around and make samples with the 3 yarns I plan to use, in the various tensions the machine has. Here’s a pic of me underway:

After 3 hours I was left with over 600 rows of knitting completed- definately not something I could have done without the machine!

The white “snake” is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 using Patons’ Astra. The pink is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 with Patons’ Canadiana, and the blue is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 8, 8.2, 9, 9.1, 10 with Patons’ Decor. The yellow lines are pieces of cotton woven through to mark off the sections. The snakes were all done Monday, and this evening I started measuring 4″ squares in each to see what gauge I got. I’ve measured the pink one so far. Unfortunately none of the gauges matches the 20 sts x 26 rows I normal need with the Decor or Canadiana, so I think I’ll have to go back and make more swatches using the middle tensions (each whole number has 2 other divisions before reaching the next whole number).

I stopped using the machine around 7pm and spent the night relaxing with Yannick, enjoying some Domino’s Pizza (I had $5 off) while watching Medium and CSI:Miami. Yannick and I have a mutual dislike for, well, we affectionately refer to him as “the arrogant redhead”, and greatly enjoy making fun of his character flaws. Especially how he takes himself so seriously. Hysterical stuff.

Today I got home from work intent on making some progress. Earlier today I had a chance to make a st st gauge swatch using the Alafoss Lopi. I started one in garter too but didn’t get to finish before leaving for work. I need to mark off a 4″ square with a contrast yarn then felt the swatches so I can measure how much they shrunk. Because I’m making the bag larger than the original I need to be able to calculate how much larger to make it in each direction. So when I got home I finished the garter swatch, measured one of the above machine swatches, then sat down to do as much work as possible on Duffle Coat.

That’s when I became the dolt refered to in the title above.

First, as directed, I seamed the shoulders. It took me a few minutes to figure out their placements ‘cus there’s no schematic included, but finally I matched up the cables and st st stripes and did a very nice seaming job. See-

Look how nicely those peices line up! They’re only bunched ‘cus I left my tape measure underneath before taking the pic.

So I did both sides, then moved on to the next step: button bands. I picked up all the required sts, did my required number of rows including the buttonholes. That’s when I realized it. Look:

This is what it looked like right before doing the button band. I kept thinking to myself “man that neck opening is small! How will that fit around a kid’s neck?” Once the button band was done, it was even smaller. I mean, the neck opening was no more than 2″ wide- in circumference! What did I do wrong?

Easy. See the cutouts on the armhole sides? Those L shaped wedge openings that I had assumed were to fit in the sleeves? Nope. Those are the neck edges. I’d seamed the two front panels on the wrong sides.

Luckily I don’t weave my edges until I’m done. (Thanks Nicole!) It wasn’t hard to frog the button band and pick out the mattress stitch joining the shoulder seams. I even had time to rejoin the seams the right way and pick up the band sts and do a few rows before stopping for the night.

Oh well. At least doing the button band gave me a chance to realize that I wasn’t given enough buttons! I was given 6 but this size sweater needs 7. So I won’t be able to finish the sweater after all. I’m not going to sew on any buttons and take the chance they have no more of that type. I’ll wait and see what they have in stock first.

To Shell from the comments: A) I’m SO SORRY you don’t have addi Turbos there! I love them for non slippery stuff. And thank for the “talented” comment, it’s really sweet of you to say so! B) I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t wild about Robots. My brother’s name is Aaron! Wait- was it you who already told me that your son has my brother’s name? I really should take notes on who’s who! 🙂

To Kadi from the comments: Hi! I hope you’ll be at the next meetup! I had a good time there. I purchased the issue of Rebecca at RedBirdKnits in December, and the link to the page with all their Rebecca magazines is here. I just took a quick look and saw they have 3 issues available: one in the original language (is it Danish? German?), the one I have that you looked through, and a new issue.

And a big HI! to Bernie even though you only emailed me when you needed something. ;]

The knitting machine adventure went well yesterday.

First I brought it downstairs ‘cus I was a dummy and didn’t realize it clipped on to the front of my workspace. I thought the clamps went into the back and I wasn’t about to reach forwards over my kitchen table to use it. Luckily (even though it turned out unnecessary) I had a small, unused coffee table that worked perfectly. So I brought everything downstairs.

I had no problems setting everything up, but it took some trial and error to get it all working in what I imagined to be the right way. I decided to be productive with my playing around and make samples with the 3 yarns I plan to use, in the various tensions the machine has. Here’s a pic of me underway:

After 3 hours I was left with over 600 rows of knitting completed- definately not something I could have done without the machine!

The white “snake” is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 using Patons’ Astra. The pink is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 with Patons’ Canadiana, and the blue is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 8, 8.2, 9, 9.1, 10 with Patons’ Decor. The yellow lines are pieces of cotton woven through to mark off the sections. The snakes were all done Monday, and this evening I started measuring 4″ squares in each to see what gauge I got. I’ve measured the pink one so far. Unfortunately none of the gauges matches the 20 sts x 26 rows I normal need with the Decor or Canadiana, so I think I’ll have to go back and make more swatches using the middle tensions (each whole number has 2 other divisions before reaching the next whole number).

I stopped using the machine around 7pm and spent the night relaxing with Yannick, enjoying some Domino’s Pizza (I had $5 off) while watching Medium and CSI:Miami. Yannick and I have a mutual dislike for, well, we affectionately refer to him as “the arrogant redhead”, and greatly enjoy making fun of his character flaws. Especially how he takes himself so seriously. Hysterical stuff.

Today I got home from work intent on making some progress. Earlier today I had a chance to make a st st gauge swatch using the Alafoss Lopi. I started one in garter too but didn’t get to finish before leaving for work. I need to mark off a 4″ square with a contrast yarn then felt the swatches so I can measure how much they shrunk. Because I’m making the bag larger than the original I need to be able to calculate how much larger to make it in each direction. So when I got home I finished the garter swatch, measured one of the above machine swatches, then sat down to do as much work as possible on Duffle Coat.

That’s when I became the dolt refered to in the title above.

First, as directed, I seamed the shoulders. It took me a few minutes to figure out their placements ‘cus there’s no schematic included, but finally I matched up the cables and st st stripes and did a very nice seaming job. See-

Look how nicely those peices line up! They’re only bunched ‘cus I left my tape measure underneath before taking the pic.

So I did both sides, then moved on to the next step: button bands. I picked up all the required sts, did my required number of rows including the buttonholes. That’s when I realized it. Look:

This is what it looked like right before doing the button band. I kept thinking to myself “man that neck opening is small! How will that fit around a kid’s neck?” Once the button band was done, it was even smaller. I mean, the neck opening was no more than 2″ wide- in circumference! What did I do wrong?

Easy. See the cutouts on the armhole sides? Those L shaped wedge openings that I had assumed were to fit in the sleeves? Nope. Those are the neck edges. I’d seamed the two front panels on the wrong sides.

Luckily I don’t weave my edges until I’m done. (Thanks Nicole!) It wasn’t hard to frog the button band and pick out the mattress stitch joining the shoulder seams. I even had time to rejoin the seams the right way and pick up the band sts and do a few rows before stopping for the night.

Oh well. At least doing the button band gave me a chance to realize that I wasn’t given enough buttons! I was given 6 but this size sweater needs 7. So I won’t be able to finish the sweater after all. I’m not going to sew on any buttons and take the chance they have no more of that type. I’ll wait and see what they have in stock first.

To Shell from the comments: A) I’m SO SORRY you don’t have addi Turbos there! I love them for non slippery stuff. And thank for the “talented” comment, it’s really sweet of you to say so! B) I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t wild about Robots. My brother’s name is Aaron! Wait- was it you who already told me that your son has my brother’s name? I really should take notes on who’s who! 🙂

To Kadi from the comments: Hi! I hope you’ll be at the next meetup! I had a good time there. I purchased the issue of Rebecca at RedBirdKnits in December, and the link to the page with all their Rebecca magazines is here. I just took a quick look and saw they have 3 issues available: one in the original language (is it Danish? German?), the one I have that you looked through, and a new issue.

And a big HI! to Bernie even though you only emailed me when you needed something. ;]

The knitting machine adventure went well yesterday.

First I brought it downstairs ‘cus I was a dummy and didn’t realize it clipped on to the front of my workspace. I thought the clamps went into the back and I wasn’t about to reach forwards over my kitchen table to use it. Luckily (even though it turned out unnecessary) I had a small, unused coffee table that worked perfectly. So I brought everything downstairs.

I had no problems setting everything up, but it took some trial and error to get it all working in what I imagined to be the right way. I decided to be productive with my playing around and make samples with the 3 yarns I plan to use, in the various tensions the machine has. Here’s a pic of me underway:

After 3 hours I was left with over 600 rows of knitting completed- definately not something I could have done without the machine!

The white “snake” is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 using Patons’ Astra. The pink is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 with Patons’ Canadiana, and the blue is 30 sts wide, 30 rows each of tensions 8, 8.2, 9, 9.1, 10 with Patons’ Decor. The yellow lines are pieces of cotton woven through to mark off the sections. The snakes were all done Monday, and this evening I started measuring 4″ squares in each to see what gauge I got. I’ve measured the pink one so far. Unfortunately none of the gauges matches the 20 sts x 26 rows I normal need with the Decor or Canadiana, so I think I’ll have to go back and make more swatches using the middle tensions (each whole number has 2 other divisions before reaching the next whole number).

I stopped using the machine around 7pm and spent the night relaxing with Yannick, enjoying some Domino’s Pizza (I had $5 off) while watching Medium and CSI:Miami. Yannick and I have a mutual dislike for, well, we affectionately refer to him as “the arrogant redhead”, and greatly enjoy making fun of his character flaws. Especially how he takes himself so seriously. Hysterical stuff.

Today I got home from work intent on making some progress. Earlier today I had a chance to make a st st gauge swatch using the Alafoss Lopi. I started one in garter too but didn’t get to finish before leaving for work. I need to mark off a 4″ square with a contrast yarn then felt the swatches so I can measure how much they shrunk. Because I’m making the bag larger than the original I need to be able to calculate how much larger to make it in each direction. So when I got home I finished the garter swatch, measured one of the above machine swatches, then sat down to do as much work as possible on Duffle Coat.

That’s when I became the dolt refered to in the title above.

First, as directed, I seamed the shoulders. It took me a few minutes to figure out their placements ‘cus there’s no schematic included, but finally I matched up the cables and st st stripes and did a very nice seaming job. See-

Look how nicely those peices line up! They’re only bunched ‘cus I left my tape measure underneath before taking the pic.

So I did both sides, then moved on to the next step: button bands. I picked up all the required sts, did my required number of rows including the buttonholes. That’s when I realized it. Look:

This is what it looked like right before doing the button band. I kept thinking to myself “man that neck opening is small! How will that fit around a kid’s neck?” Once the button band was done, it was even smaller. I mean, the neck opening was no more than 2″ wide- in circumference! What did I do wrong?

Easy. See the cutouts on the armhole sides? Those L shaped wedge openings that I had assumed were to fit in the sleeves? Nope. Those are the neck edges. I’d seamed the two front panels on the wrong sides.

Luckily I don’t weave my edges until I’m done. (Thanks Nicole!) It wasn’t hard to frog the button band and pick out the mattress stitch joining the shoulder seams. I even had time to rejoin the seams the right way and pick up the band sts and do a few rows before stopping for the night.

Oh well. At least doing the button band gave me a chance to realize that I wasn’t given enough buttons! I was given 6 but this size sweater needs 7. So I won’t be able to finish the sweater after all. I’m not going to sew on any buttons and take the chance they have no more of that type. I’ll wait and see what they have in stock first.

To Shell from the comments: A) I’m SO SORRY you don’t have addi Turbos there! I love them for non slippery stuff. And thank for the “talented” comment, it’s really sweet of you to say so! B) I’m glad to know I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t wild about Robots. My brother’s name is Aaron! Wait- was it you who already told me that your son has my brother’s name? I really should take notes on who’s who! 🙂

To Kadi from the comments: Hi! I hope you’ll be at the next meetup! I had a good time there. I purchased the issue of Rebecca at RedBirdKnits in December, and the link to the page with all their Rebecca magazines is here. I just took a quick look and saw they have 3 issues available: one in the original language (is it Danish? German?), the one I have that you looked through, and a new issue.

And a big HI! to Bernie even though you only emailed me when you needed something. ;]

Last night was wild! After work Yannick picked me up and we hurried home to change, then picked up Pat & Gina to drive down (up?) to Chambly. It’s about an hour’s drive away although Yannick took a wrong turn and we made it in 45 minutes. We still arrived about an hour late ‘cus Yannick didn’t know what time the party was called for. At least we didn’t ruin the surprise!

The dinner was at Fourquette Fourchette, the Quebecoise theme restaurant in Chambly right on the site of the famous Chambly Fort. (Don’t ask me what it’s famous for, something historical and Quebec-related. I’m not up on my hometown trivia. Something good I think. Maybe we won?) The food there is fantastic, and since the restaurant is also a brewery, there were many, many drinks going around. There were some novelty breasts being thrown around….one broke a glass and spilled beer everywhere…there was lute playing…there was dancing…there was water spilled over 3 peoples’ heads…it was madness! First time in a long time I was out, never mind up that late. We only left the restaurant around 1am! Plus we still had the drive home and dropping off Pat and Gina, we went to bed after 3am, that’s for sure.

Sunday Yannick and slept in for a bit then went over to the West Island mall. He did some shopping at Winners then bought me some ink refills and stationary at Bureau en Gros. The stationary is to replace the thin loose leaf in my knitting journal, it’s really nice with an etching of a ribbon on it. He even waited with me to use the copy center’s slicer to cut the paper in half since my journal is the half size. He slowly cut all 100 sheets in half for me so I could use them. How sweet!

In the mall they had an Easter treat for the kids. Ok, it was also a treat for me! Voila:

Future Sweater

Future Scarf & Cuffs

Sweaters in Training

After a quick lunch at Saint Cinnamon’s and the time spent at Bureau en Gros, we stopped at the library. I think I scored big time with my finds. Not only did I get 6 books I’ve been wanting to read, but I took out about 15 audio books. I’ve been wanting to have something to play those times when I want to knit but don’t feel like watching TV. They had a few on CD so I took those for the car. The ones on tape are for home. The coolest thing is that 5 of the tapes I got are narrated by Tim Curry! Dr. Frank N. Furter himself! I love him. For the next 3 weeks I get to listen to him growl his way through 3 crime mysteries and 2 of the Lemony Snickett books. :]

From there it was off to Loblaws and then to Nicole’s (my knitting teacher). She so graciously offered to lend me a knitting machine, so Yannick and I went by to pick it up. She has such a beautiful home! It has such a charm- it’s one of the ones in Pointe Claire by the water, and I love that whole area.

My original plan was to whip up a bunch of KM (knitting machine) swatches so they could “rest” over night and I could start working away today, but it was already 7pm and we hadn’t eaten yet. By the time I’d made supper and put everything away it was 8:30. I wanted to at least finish the second Duffle Coat sleeve before bed so I could let the two sleeves block so I did that, but then realized that the hood wasn’t picked up from the body- instead it was to be cast on and knitted separately. My conscience wouldn’t let me go to the KM when there was still stuff I could do on the Duffle Coat.

I worked on the hood while we watched Shall We Dance?. It was a cute movie. I liked how it reaffirmed a marriage without resorting to an affair.

Today I finished the hood in my knitting class and bought a skein of a variegated gray blend Alafoss Lopi. I have a bunch of charcoal Lopi I’m going to use to make my felted knitting bag but since I’m planning on making it larger than the original I was afraid I’d run out. They have no more charcoal but they do have the gray mix that ranges from light gray through charcoal and to black, so I’ll use that for the base. The bag should look really good once it’s done.

Now I’m off to play with the KM monster. Here it is in its box, taunting me. It’s a Singer HK-100, bulky machine. Wish me luck!

After showing up really late for the cake ‘n coffee at B’s (blame Yannick who only got home after the time we were supposed to be there and STILL had to shower) we hung out there for a while then went to see Robots.

Eh. Nowhere near as funny as Shrek 1 or 2, nowhere near as INCREDIBLE as The Incredibles, and most of the humor was directed at kids not adults. I’m not disappointed we went though, it was cute. Plus we got to see another preview of Madagascar which we can’t wait to see, and our first preview of Star Wars 3.

Didn’t get any knitting done.

Am I the only one loving the nice weather we’re having lately? Ok there have been some cold spells, but the temps lately really remind me of Fall, which is my favorite season. (Ok, I’m also really looking forwards to snow-less days that aren’t too cold so I can buy a pomander like seen on this page and head out for a really productive walk.)

This is Yannick’s nephew Justin:

(yes I’m only showing pics to show off the hoodie I made him)

He’s the 3rd of Yannick’s sister’s 4 boys. (I know!) Today Justin is 4 (YAY Happy Birthday!) and we’re leaving in a few to go over for cake and coffee with his family. The lucky boy will be getting 2 presents from us just like he does for every occasion ‘cus he’s Yannick’s godson. He will soon be the proud owner of a bike helmet and The Incredibles on DVD.

Hi!

The needles are my usual addi turbos. That pair is size 6mm (10 US). For needles I got a good deal on RedBirdKnits’ Christmas sale, so I picked up all the addis I was missing in common sizes, for 40% off! Now I have sizes 2.5mm through 7 or 8mm. I use them for everything unless it’s a lace project, when I’ll use my Denise set ‘cus the plastic has more grab and the points are pointier. I buy them all as long as I can find so I can Magic Loop any smaller sizes, and don’t use dpns at all (unless I’m making socks. I still love them for socks).

Have a great day!

Here’s proof of the KIP I’m so fond of:

KIP= Knitting in Public

I also caved and gave Yannick his Valentine’s Day gift last night. We were going to wait for a night when it wasn’t already almost 1am, but I’m a sucker for giving gifts so I weakened. He thought the Sweetheart Mittens were really sweet, extremely adorable, and very me. :] He also couldn’t resist playing around with them:

These mittens took you HOW long???

I can’t believe you went to all that trouble for ME! I’m so touched. * sniff *

and finally

A sincere thank-you.

Had a good day today. Actually it’s been a good week but I’ve been trying to get to bed early so been posting a bit lazily. Monday had some good news in my knitting class when Nicole (my teacher) offered to lend me one of her knitting machines. Woo hoo! Yannick and I will be heading over on Sunday to pick it up. Tres cool indeed.

Did some knitting on sleeve # 1 of Duffle Coat last night, went through until I was finished the current skein and didn’t have any more near me. Luckily this occured after 11pm so I felt justified in going to bed instead of going into my office to grab another ball.

Tonight went to my first knitting meetup organized through meetup.com. Had a good time! I got there early ‘cus it starts at 7 but I finished work at 6 right around the corner. Good thing about going early is that the meters are free but there are still spots available. I already knew Nadine from the MKG, but I met Mary, Mary, Jennifer, Ada, Cady and shoot another really nice woman who is a friend of Nadine’s and I feel really bad I just blanked out on her name but she was knitting a gorgeous spring colored scarf. I hate forgetting stuff. RRRRR And she was really nice too! In fact, everyone was. I’m looking forwards to going next month!

Managed to finish sleeve #1. Was pleasantly surprised ‘cus I’d checked my Palm yesterday and saw that the “sleeve” directions end on row 165 (the rows being the way I break down the patterns in my database). I was only on direction row 1-0-something so I figured I was in for a spell, when all of a sudden I’m into BOs and decreases. Next thing you know the sleeve was done, just a few short rows later. Turns out instead of adding a direction row “repeat for second sleeve” I’d actually created another set of directions, so both sleeves took until row 165. Was very happy ‘cus I was beginning to think this thing would never be done. Although, it’s only been a week and a half since I was given the yarn and pattern and I’ve finished the back, both fronts and 1 sleeve. Only got 1 more sleeve, the hood, then joining and some ribbed bands. I’m kinda impressed with me here. (Ok, truth time: it’s not too hard to knit fast when the yarn is chunky. Shhh don’t tell anyone!)

Now I’m going to get my 2nd good night’s sleep in a row. TRANSLATION: I’m going to get into bed, play a few games on my Palm, realize that at least an hour has gone by, decide to read for a bit “just to make me sleepy” and finally close the Palm once my eyes are falling, somewhere around 1:15am like usual.

Oh, and if anyone reading knows of an easy way to add mood indicators to blogger templates, please let me know. I’m trying to find something cute without being obnoxious. I’ve found moodsmilies.com but don’t like the final format that it puts on the site.