Sunday, August 30, 2009

Wow, I'm The Most Disgusting One In The House!*

It's true, I'm awfully gross. I was struck by galloping crud yesterday afternoon - I went from "Is something bugging my allergies?" to "We hab to go home dow because I'b used up my second package ob kleenex and my nose id going to fall obb ob my face now" in about four hours.
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This morning, the man woke up early. I'd been up all night, and I groggily rolled over and asked for two favors.
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"Please bring de full box ob kleenex from de odder bathroom and take de baby monitor because I need more sleep."
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He agreed, and started talking to me, and I'm still not sure if I just thought it, or actually said "I am out ob kleenex, and ib you don't bring me a new box soon, I am going to blow by dose on de sheets. Needer ob us want dat." At any rate, he brought me the box, & then I went back to sleep for a couple more hours. I'd just staggered out of bed, and hadn't yet begun (let alone completed) my morning toilette. He popped in to drop off the monitor - he was off to yoga. Am had started singing, but was still happy as only a fair-sized clam in a double bed who has her puppy, bear, sheep, donkey, giant fish, hairbrush, and three books can be. I give him super ultra bonus points for not recoiling visibly OR running away - I was some awful. I recoiled when I weaved my way back to the bathroom. I think I may have reached a new nadir of personal attractiveness.
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I tell you what, I felt so crappy that knitting took too much energy & focus. I'm feeling better now, & capable of peeling & eating a peach, knitting, & a quick blog. I'm still not well, no, and my kleenex box body count is still mounting - but my sinuses seem to have levelled out. And I'm not actively fantasizing about NyQuil cocktails, with a twist of Advil.
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I'm going to go have a snack now, & then collapse into unconsciousness. (Snack will be peaches. Unconsciousness will be drug-free.)
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*And if you live with a toddler, you know that that's really saying something.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Regularily Scheduled

Yes indeed, I have most of an excellent (or at least sufficient) blog post written up in my head.
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My head has been busy today, what with a full day at the office, then deciding to go to Costco with the girl after supper, while the man goes to his yoga.
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And my hands, well. They've got the itch to knit, or spin, or even just idly twiddle my hair.*
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So I'm going to go & knit. Updates on all sorts of things tomorrow, or the next day. I'm planning on going to the farmer's market, so I may have ate myself into immobility on cherries. I kinda hope so...
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(Pre-plying & whacking.)
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*These are all things that I do compulsively, and find soothing.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Ooo, baby.

I whacked my yarn.
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With enthusiasm, even. I was trying to get it done before the man & the girl got home, but instead, I had an audience. Am was very enthusiastic, and cheered.
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The babysitter seemed nice, well balanced, really experienced, & motivated too. So I'm going on a date on Friday! With my husband! OOoooooOoo!
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Then I had enough time to burn over to yoga, which was (for a prenatal class) pretty ass-kicking. In a good way.
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Now I'm going to go & eat something. Then go to bed. Tomorrow is a busy, busy day!
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PS: I am far too lazy to go & get the camera for a picture of the yarn, or a picture of the splendid socks. I'd put them on, just to prance in place on the couch, but I'm hot & my feet are swollen. So, another time, cher!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Ha. Take that, WIP pile.

I didn't knit anything today. (Not yet, I may throw a quick row into a scarf before I go to sleep. I might get nightmares if I don't knit at all.)
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I did, however, kick some fiber's but. I had a whole fluffy pile of this merino top that I'd got about half done, then walked away from. I've since learned: a) better spinning skills & control with my Turkish spindle than the "other" one b) I don't like spinning top - it's too, erm, bland? The fibers are texturally very uninteresting. c) It's harder to put the wobbles into the yarn than it is to keep them out. (The first half was wobbly because I didn't know any better. The second half has less wobbles, & was much more challenging.) d) It's hard to spin things that are too heavy for the spindle - and that's part of why the first half was such a fight.
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I spent some time yesterday spinning, and some time today*. By 11 am, I'd finished the whole lot off, and had 196g of singles. (Am is teething & is very screamy & uncooperative in general right now; so I spin & talk to her calmly about how she needs to put on pants, or eat her breakfast, or she just asked for that, so screaming that she doesn't want it doesn't increase the odds of my complying with future requests. You know how it goes.) I want to get this yarn done because I want to be rid of it, and move onto new spinning projects (helllllo Sweet Georgia**!) with no guilt. Also, I have this yarn earmarked for a particular project. So I plyed & plyed, and cursed & plyed, and thought that I should really invest in a plying spindle at the very least***.
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And then I wound & cursed; then draped yarn over the man & rewound on the niddy-noddy again. And now, other than whacking my yarn, I'm done! I have 197m of merino top, all nicely spun up. I'm hopeful that the whacking will slightly felt the fibers, & get them to bloom a little; which will hopefully increase the artisanal interest & decrease the "Wow, new to spinning, eh?". I think that beating the yarn against the deck will also allow me to bond with the yarn more.
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So, I'm taking a cookie & going to bed. Whacking updates tomorrow. (We're test-driving a new babysitter tomorrow - is whacking a little too weird? Should I hide my wacking activities?)
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*I also made three meals, roughed out most of two yoga bolsters (now I just need to stuff them - the man said he'd help! Mwa-ha-haha!), pranced about foolishly in my Exciting New Socks (a wholepost about those, oh boy!), and had a nap. And we all went for a walk to the slide & I chatted with the neoghbours, whose names' I remembered.
**Sweet Georgia Yarns - out of Vancouver. Yummy. I'm tempted to join her fiber club (doubled up), but see ***.
***I'm not getting a wheel when I have a newborn arriving soon. I know I'm a little OCD about hobbies; and I know how much sleep I need; & I can roughly extrapolate how much extra time I will have with Am AND a newborn. So, no wheel for now.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Turkey Turds & Truth In Advertising

So, I got a kite for the man & the girl a couple Xmases ago. It was a bit of a whim, in that I came across it at Costco, and it hasn't been set up. Until today.
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Now, I'm realistic about my expectations in life, which means that I thought this kite (packaging illustrated above) would be big, & look a little like a dragon.
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It's huge. HUGE. (Husband included for scale is 6'6.) The kite is very detailed - it has a tongue, & fangs, & a ruff in addition to a grand wingspan & tail. It has four legs, which all connect to the cord, and it should be very impressive once it's launched. I'm surprised & entertained by how grandly the kite exceeded my expectations, conformed to it's illustration, and made the man curse when he put it together.
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Changing the subject almost completely, have you ever eaten a turkey turd? They're also known as haystacks or unbaked cookies, and they're delicious & addictive. The man just brought the plate over.
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(There aren't that many cookies left now.) Because I can't share the cookies with you, Intarweb, I'm going to do the next best thing & share the recipe. Be warned; ever have someone to share these with OR have indomitable willpower.
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TURKEY TURDS
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Boil in microwave together for 5 minutes (time will depend on your microwave):
2c white sugar
1/2c butter
1/2c milk
5 TB cocoa (+)
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(I generally stir them every minute, and count the formal minute count once all the butter is melted, and stop cooking once the sugar is all dissolved.)
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Quickly stir in:
1 tsp vanilla
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Add:
1 c coconut (+)
2c oatmeal (+)
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Stir & drop onto wax paper by the spoonful. Refrigerate until set (if you can wait that long), and enjoy. (I like to increase the cocoa, & find that I always need to increase the coconut & oatmeal.
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You can tell yourself that they're high in fiber? I have no other rationalizations, other than that they're great to make in hot weather, and they're healthier than rice krispie kake. I think. I like them better, at any rate...









Friday, August 21, 2009

So who does Am look like?

People ask me this a lot, & really, it's hard to say. I assume that people are looking for a simple answer, like "Me", or "Her dad", or "Great Aunt Margaret".
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I don't think it's that easy though...
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Some days, with the right (jam) moustache, she looks a bit like Hitler.
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Or somebody doing a bad impression of Hitler.
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It only fits, I mean, she looked like Churchill for so long. (H'ween 07)
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I'd found a pair of Jackie O sunglasses for Am, but I don't think she looks like Jackie O. (Am isn't nearly reserved enough.)
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Here, she reminds me of another great Brit, Elton John. (In his 70's crazy glasses phase.)
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Really, with this attitude, she could be any of the great 70's partiers.
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Speaking of attitude, some days she really hates how the Mamarazzi gets in her face.
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And as the attitude continues, here she looks like Paris Hilton. (Petulance x Imperious = Brat Supreme)
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I think she looks like herself, to be honest (and quote her grampa). And she's always beautiful to me. (And she might look nearsighted here, but I'm pretty sure she sees better than Ido, and she's just concentrating.)

What I Did To Ishbel...

No, this isn't a sordid tale about me beating up some poor soul named Ishbel. I'm not really that kind of person. (Although if she was holding out on cherries, you never know what I might be moved to...)
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I recently finished my first lace project - it merits that title because it's the first thing I've ever formally blocked. I mean, I've blocked sweater pieces, etc; but I had no idea the amazing difference that blocking lace would make!
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The pattern is
Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague. This pic is from when I'd just started the lacework, & I was delighted that my brain was working.
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In summary:
1) I used Maui Yarns 100% superwash merino sock yarn in Koa Nut - 440yds/100g skein, & I had a healthy amount left over. I was a little nervous that I'd run out, but it was totally fine.
2) I knit the smaller (scarf sized) stockinette sized panel, but the larger (shawl sized) lace panel. (In the words of the pattern, CO for small, knit section A, B, A, B, A, C, D, E.
3) The pattern has increases on both the RS & WS rows; this makes for a lovely shape, but I didn't like the YO's on both sides; it looked different than the YO's down the center panel. I ended up doing two different things.
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In the stockinette section, I knit thusly:
RS: K3, YO, K1, M1R, k...... as pattern called for until 4 stitches from the end.... M1L, K1, YO, K3
WS: K3, P... as pattern called for...P, K3
When I asked Google about the M1R & M1L, I found that most instructions are referencing a lifted stitch. These aren't; they're a stitch that I make by wrapping the yarn around my left or right index finger (or clockwise & counterclockwise), then slipping it onto the right needle as a stitch. I read about this in Myrna Stahman's book on Faroese shaped shawls; I like it because it leans left & right, so it's easy to pair for shaping, and really, it's the first paired invisible shaping I learned so I tend to fall back on it. Because you're working with the yarn from the ball, as opposed to yarn that's already knitted into the project, I also found that it doesn't muck with my gauge or tension in the knitted piece. It worked really well until I got to the lace charts, & then I realized that I was not keen on trying to rewrite lace charts so early in my lace career, and turning my first real lace project into what my family & friends would refer to in hushed tones as "What Finally Made Her Snap".
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So with the lace section, I instead knitted:
RS: Exactly as charted/written
WS: K3, P1, P1FB, ...as pattern called for until 5 stitches from the end... P1FB, P1, K3.
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This worked well, & probably would've been just fine for the body of the scarf, but it didn't occur to me until the lace part. P1FB is just the purled version of K1FB; I purled first into the front leg, then the back leg of the stitch.

See? (Well, probably not, kind of a crappy pic.) The increases have pulled a little closed, I was maybe a bit eager with the blocking.
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(My Ishbel, pinned down & drying.) The difference in the knitted fabric pre- & post-blocking is amazing. I can't even really put it into words; it's, er, um. It's cool!
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I'm so pleased with it; I'd provide you with a better photo, but my arms no longer are long enough to get a decent self-portrait. So here, instead, is a partial belly & Ishbel portrait instead.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Oh Me, Oh My, Pi'o

I'd like to formally introduce you to my Pi'o hat, which is named after the Hawaiian word for curve. You may have seen it before here... or perhaps as I pranced about like a goofball, enjoying my ribbon. I was so delighted - and surprised! - to see that it had won a ribbon at the Calgary Stampede. I mean, sure I was entering in a competition, but c'mon.

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This version of Pi'o was knit on holiday in Maui, where I got sand in my toes & my knitting & my design book. I also got lucky in the nicest way*; we'd just started trying, and I was surprised & delighted** that we conceived our second child there. I hope she has some of that great aloha vibe.

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And so, to give a little back to the universe, I'm making this pattern available for free. (On Ravelry, but email me if you'd like a copy & you're not a Raveler.)

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Universe, it's a small thing, this pattern, but I really love it. I love it in the dirty spring in our back yard...

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I love it in the late fall at the lake in Saskatchewan...

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And I really loved it in Maui.

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About Pi'o:
It uses one skein of Noro Silk Garden Light, and alternates panels of stockinette with reverse stockinette. It's knit in the round, from the crown to the brim. There are three options for the depth, ranging from beanie-ish to slouchy. If you skip the purling, you get an even simpler, smooth textured hat. The purple version is the smallest; the prize winner is the medium, and the grey/green/orange is the large.
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Click to download Pi'o now!
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*I guess I do mean that literally & metaphorically!
**I mean, c'mon. When does that happen the first month of trying? Other than our first child? (And maybe I was just a little "Oh, bummer, I was really enjoying the trying...")



Saturday, August 15, 2009

Pink & Blue

Well, this is a photo heavy post, skimming what we've been up to lately. I noticed when uploading them that they're almost all in pink or blue tones. Appropriate enough; pink for the girl fun, and I've felt a little blue since Z & the man left. The man is back Monday, but we won't see Zeb for a while. She's excellent company - both for myself & for Am - and we both miss her.
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Wednesday's were Z&K day (Am was in daycare), so we went to the zoo to take pics of the plants. Then we went to Nectar for dessert. I mulled how much moral turpitude I was leading Z into, by taking her for dessert, with no lunch, but hey. What are aunts for? There was some fruit in her lemonade & her cake.
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I think she liked it, but not as much as me. At least, I ate all of my cake & sorbet, and a heck of a lot faster than she ate her half piece.
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Isn't it pretty? Lemon chiffon cake with fresh raspberries, & raspberry sorbet. I seriously contemplated getting a second helping for myself, but that would have been excessive.
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And I don't think I look like I'm in for excesses, do I? I may look smug, but that was such a fine dessert.
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Then, because the man was out golfing, I suggested that we go out for burgers & milkshakes for supper. The food was a bit of a dud, but what is possibly the most entertaining series of photos ever was taken.
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It all started when Zeb said "Hey Am, lets stick out our tongues!"
(Am complies, with curled up tongue.)
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Still going according to plan...
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This is the part where you can see Am get an idea...
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...and this is the part where Am tried to lick Zeb's tongue*. Zeb is flailing in disgust, & I'm amazed the photo turned out, I was laughing so hard.
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Not content with failure, Am licks Z's shirt. If only I'd set the camera to video!
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And the squealing & giggling continued...
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In completely other news, I've been spinning.
(Fiber & empty spindle. Color is most true in this pic.)
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I turned a sizable pile of fluff - baby camel/silk blend that I'd dyed - into 103g of fairly fine & fairly consistent singles. (For me, incredibly so. The man just laughs when he watches me spin now; the yarn used to be a lot... wobblier.)
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Then I plied them. I think I got about 160m of, erm, the finest & most consistent thing I've ever spun. Between aran & dk? Not sure.
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And the best news is, I'm not disappointed with it! I'd been a little "huh" about the singles, as they were a good deal muddier than I wanted, but I'm quite enchanted with the finished product. I haven't washed & whumped** it yet, just set the twist with my niddy-noddy, but I expect that due to the incredibly short staple length of the baby camel, I will get a beautiful halo on it.
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And now I'm for bed. Tomorrow, I plan to finish the laundry, maybe make some cookies with the girl, and sew, knit, or spin. Or all three. Also, I may have another afternoon nap, because I (heart) napping.
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*I swear, that was her idea! The man & I don't lick each other's tongues in public! (In private, behind closed doors, who can say? ;) )
**You soak your fiber, gently wring it out, then take it either to the bathtub or outside, & whump it against something solid until it quits spraying water. Another one of those things that might have a proper term, but whatevs. I get a kick out of the whumping process, sound, & name, so whumping it is.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Crisis Averted!

There was a moth in the house.
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A MOTH IN MY HOUSE!
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Now, I find moths a little creepy at the best of times -but some of them like eating fibers. That's creepy, as Z accurately observed. So, I'm sitting on the couch, ignoring the end of the football game, browsing through Ravelry*, and a tiny moth goes fluttering by.
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A MOTH GOES FLUTTERING BY!
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I gasp, and say a "A MOTH!". And then, because I've just finished a delicious savory lemon tart from Nectar, and there is more saliva in my mouth than the norm, I guess, and I'm so horrified by THE MOTH, I, erm, I aspirated my own spit. And then I started coughing. Because I'm torn between KILLING IT, catching it & releasing it (my usual house-bug policy), and struggling for air.
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The man looked over from the game. "Are you okay?"
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*gasp*"A moth! Kill it! THE MOTH! KILL IT!" *sputter*
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"It's just a moth."
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*cough*"THEY EAT YARN!" (Sometimes**.)
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The man looked at me. I did my best to look earnest, sane, & I like I needed that moth killed, while trying to recover from almost choking on my own saliva, & fighting the urge to go & throw my body in front of my yarn cabinet.
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The man sighed. "Okay, well, just calm down. Where'd he go?" My eyes got a little crazy, I suspect, and he suggested that I turn a light on & we'll get him once he settles by it.
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I turn my spotlight for knitting at the couch on. The moth circles. I try not to gasp again. The man circles in, lethally brandishing his paper. I'm dancing from foot to foot, still sputtering a bit.
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POW! BLAMMO! ZAP! BIF! (Okay, it was more like "Smack", but it's so rarely that I get to use Batman sound effects on this blog.) Disaster averted.
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I think.
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I'm checking my stash tomorrow. It's almost all in ziploc bags (other than the bad yarn that I don't like any more), and I check it every month or so***, but still. You can never be to careful.
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*Are you on Ravelry yet? If you're a knitter, get yourself to Ravelry!
**Sometimes, some types. I'm willing to condemn an entires species to save my stash.
***Yes, I do. Z just asked. I mean, honestly, it's more like I visit my stash every month or so, and moth inspection is just part of the standard check-up.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I Am Smart,


Aug 09 SPinning, originally uploaded by Kourtney_R.

Yes I am. I'm going to figure out how to stuff this darn photo into Ravelry if it kills me.

It's a baby camel/silk blend that I'm spinning on my Jenkins; I'm happy with the weight, not so happy about the incredibly short staple length of the baby camel (fuzzy! sheds!), and tepid about the color (it might be up for an overdye).

I have certainly learned a lot with this stuff... and there's so much more yet to spin...

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

And Now For Something Completely Different (aka: Go Team Canada!)

So, I left work early today, and headed over to the Father David Bauer arena to watch the Team Canada (Women) hockey practice.
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Now, you may know that I still haven't learned how to stop on skates. But you may not know that Hayley Wickenheiser is a friend of the family, and I've know her since we were kids. (She lived a couple doors down from my cousins.) At a recent wedding, I asked her if we could stop by to see her Olympic medals sometime - Z was very excited about the idea. (Honestly, the man was interested too). "Sure," she says, "Actually, come by to see a practice."
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We saw more than the practice - which was amazing, and holy cow, what a hard working bunch of women! She toured us through the whole facility - bike room, change rooms, steam rooms, physio room, and a cool conference room too. She aslo gave Z a jersey signed by the team, and the practice puck. Verrrrry cool stuff.
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(Hayley & Z.)
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It really is a full time job - and I cannot believe the amazing focus & dedication she has. Also, she's in incredible shape. I just had a hysterical laughing fit, because we're about the same height, and right now, with me at the beginning of the third trimester, I think we're about the same weight. Funny how knitting & pregnancy builds body mass differently than hockey...

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If you're interested, they have a whole pile of games
coming up, and you can check it out on their website www.hockeycanada.ca . I may not know offside from icing, but I do believe in supporting people who work so hard towards their dreams. I'm planning on making the man take me to a game - the tickets are such an amazing deal, and maybe, this time, when the rules are explained, they might stick in my head*.
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A quick overview:
DETAILS ON 2009-10 NATIONAL WOMEN’S TEAM SCHEDULE
• 30 games against Midget AAA teams
• Six-game series against the United States (three games in Canada and three games in the United States)
• Three games against Canada’s National Women’s Under-22 Team
• One game against a Junior A team (AJHL’s Calgary Canucks)
• International events include the 2009 Hockey Canada Cup (August 31-September 6 in Vancouver, B.C.); 2009 4 Nations Cup (November 3-8 in Finland); 2010 Olympic Winter Games (February 13-25, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C.)
• TSN/RDS, Hockey Canada’s official broadcaster, will televise four of these games (the gold medal game at the 2009 Hockey Canada Cup, and the Canada-United States games being held in Victoria, Calgary and Ottawa)
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*Like crochet, some things just don't stick.

Monday, August 10, 2009

FRUIT BAT MAKES GOOD!

Yes, I've been busy. So has Z___, for that matter; she's a fantastic 11-year-old sous-chef niece. She gladly chopped, mashed, whizzed, & stirred.
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Saturday we produced my classic summer dessert: Modified Rhubarb #3, which I developed years ago after exhaustive experimenting with rhubarb & crisp variations. It's awfully close to perfect; rhubarb & cherries nestled lovingly under a granola-esque topping. I also got brave (or inspired) and tried something new. Modified Rhubarb #4 has the same topping; but is peaches, rainier cherries, and rhubarb. At the risk of quoting Aerosmith, everything about them was so F-I-N-E, fine.
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(Served on my best Royal Chinet; we had guests for a fish-fry. The man brought home a literal pile of fresh lake fish, which we served with ribs, Taber corn, and the above crisp. Mmmmmm.)
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Sunday, after going to the park to slide with Am, Z & I went to the Calgary & Crossroads Farmers Market's, and hauled back fruit. Blueberries, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and yellow beans for a treat for supper were all purveyed. It hurt me to do it, but I settled for California strawberries; the man's only jam request was for strawberry, and if that (along with occasionally stocking the fridge with Stella) makes me a good wife, then I'm on it. After hunting through both farmer's markets, the only BC strawberries I could find were $5 for a wee, wee basket. Now, I love my husband, but neither Z nor I could do it. So we got the California ones, and next year, we're going home to SK to visit when NOTHING is ripe. (We had all of our June-bearing, erm, July-bearing strawberries fruit while we were gone. We got the very first & the very last, and all of the heavy bearing days we missed. A savage burn indeed.)
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All of the other fruit was from BC, and the beans were "local", which I imagine means Albertan. And mostly marked down! An unforeseen advantage of shopping at the end of the last day of the weekend.
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And then we jammed! I made freezer jam, because a) it tastes so much better to me b) it uses less sugar c) you don't have to muck around with clean jars & sealer rings & scalding thises & boiling thats NEARLY as much. It's faster, & I can work with the smaller quantities produced; I get to tinker with different blends.
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So I did. I made a batch of strawberry, a double batch of black-blue-rasp-strawberry (quadberry), and a double batch of peach-strawberry last night. Tonite, I made a batch of blueberry & a batch of blueberry-rhubarb (rhuberry).
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All fruit but the strawberry were cooked down - I want jam, not jelly. This is last night's quadberry & peach fruit, in cooking phase.
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I also got adventurous & bagged all the jams; I've rolled them into little tubes, and then stored them in big ziploc baggies to keep them tidy in the freezer. I'm scowling in the above pic because it was getting late, I was getting impatient for bed, and the peach-strawberry was JUST on this side of painfully hot. Also, all of my favorite t-shirts are getting too small.
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After initial taste tests, I think that I like the rhuberry best, followed by the peach strawberry, then the quadberry, then the standalones. I'm interested to see what the man thinks; he doesn't like black or raspberries, so a couple of the contenders are mine, all mine.
This is peach-strawberry on an English muffin. I'm tempted to fib & say that it's a fresh biscuit, but that's pure fantasy*. I haven't gotten that carried away yet, and honestly, given my love of both freezer jam AND fresh biscuits**, for the grand taste-off I should probably invite a panel of judges to join me & tackle me*** when I go in for fifths.
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*I originally typoed that as "fantasty". How Freudian!
**I will typically eat at least four biscuits when I make them; a couple with butter, then a couple with butter & honey for dessert. They're a quickbread, and no good cold or left-over, right? So I don't think I'm being excessive. And I'll share with Am. (The man's a grown adult, if he can't earmark his own biscuits, then that's sad, but I'm not sharing.)
**With love, and don't really mean it until I get to sevenths.









Friday, August 07, 2009

GIANT FRUITBAT TERRORIZES CALGARY!!!

Yes, well. It was Costco. They were fresh. And the raspberries & blueberries are from BC - maybe it's not the 100-mile diet, but I figure if it's only one province over, then close enough.
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In my defence, I wash & freeze the berries so that I can use them into the winter. The cherries are set for immediate consumption though. Don't even bother asking how they freeze - we'll never know.
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(What do you mean when you mutter "intervention" under your breath?)

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Thank Heavens I Don't Live In Japan

With Am's pregnancy, it was all about the fresh berries. Raspberries, preferably, or maybe blueberries. I was excited with this summer pregnancy, because I thought that I would be able to save some money on the grocery bills.
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(Fresh berries in January? RIDICULOUS. Also expensive, and they were totally needed.)
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So, in mid-May, I thought of cherries. Rainier cherries. And then I sighed, and realized that the fresh-fruit budget needed to be adjusted upwards.
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I have been eating cherries, people. Red cherries, black cherries, and yes, oh yes, those yellow cherries with the coy red blush. YUMMERS. I took the last of the current stash of Rainier cherries to polish off at the office today, and a coworker commented that he's never seen that kind of a fruit, and it was probably some kind of weird genetic mutant.
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I defended them, then had to check with Google. Wikipedia let me know that they're a cross between Bing & Van cultivars, from 1952, and highly prized. How highly?
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"Rainiers are considered a premium type of cherry. They sell for $5 per pound or more in the USA and as much as a dollar each in Japan.[2]"
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We would have had to mortgage the house by now.
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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

What We Did (So Far) This Summer...

(Honestly, I'm just waiting for my biscuit overload at supper to digest so that I can have some cookies. And I'm too full to think, so here's a bunch of photos!)
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Whitehorse, as I've mentioned, was awesome. This was Am's favorite part of the museum we went to - my personal fave was when I talked the man into putting on a buffalo hide jacket & a wolverine hat.

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It was really beautiful.
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(Am, pursuing a future as a spokesperson for milk &/or coffee shops.)
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After Whitehorse (& that torturous flight), we stopped at home long enough for my chiro to get me snapped into shape - almost literally. Then we headed off to the lake (Saskatchewan)...
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There was much playing with big cousin Z_____ (pronounced Nenna).
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There was some jumping off the boat - although not by Am - and really, let's face it, her dad is the only one who can make a splash that big. And it wasn't really hot enough to go swimming too often.
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Am & Nenna got to drive the boat - under Gran's close supervision, natch.

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We popped over to Grampa D's, where we found the CLAW... (too bad I didn't get any video of the CLAW in action...)
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We also headed out to fight through her admiring public to get some milk... okay, so most of the admiration was coming from her Gramma D & Grampa D too - but the shades are still pretty cool.
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There were great sunsets.
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And ice cream (Am's favorite part of the pralines & cream cone - the ice cream. My favorite part - picking the pralines off of her butt later.)
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Swinging...
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Climbing...
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Double checking the spelling of zebu during a rousing game of bananagrams...
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My cousin's wedding in Moose Jaw was lovely.
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So was the water fountain.
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And really, all of Crescent Park & Moose Jaw.
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Am was stage dancing at the wedding dance. I think we're in trouble. (There were other little girls on the stage - which was more of a pedestal - but still.)
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We met new family - I particularly admire how my bro, his wife, & his daughter, are all such a lovely color group. I accused him of planning it - and he laughed. Which means might or might not mean he did in fact plot it...
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There was lots of driving - occasionally poking toes out the window.
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And some of the scenery...
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There's more, of course, but I think a) that's enough photos for now, b) it's cookie time & c) I've got to get the girl into a tub, after her bedtime snack!