Sunday, June 29, 2008

Playing Catch-Up

Hey there, long time no blog! June is always kind of a busy month for me, what with birthdays and graduations and stuff like that (we've had grads something like five years in a row, starting with my high school grad, through my cousin's, my brother's, my other cousin's, my mom's partner's daughters, and this year three of my friends graduated university... Congrats to them, I'm super proud of them). So here's a quick recap of the stuff that happened in June!

First, there were birthdays. My mom's is on the 16th and mine is on the 18th, so we had a few parties. My grandmother had us over for supper, and made me a zucchini-chocolate-chip cake with cream cheese icing, my special request. It was really good (of course it was, otherwise I wouldn't have requested it!)

The gang all pitched in to get me a kickass present (thanks again, guys!):



A ball winder! I was so excited. That night we had supper at a pub I love here in Moncton and then we came back here, hung out and played Guitar Hero while a little drunk on Jello margarita shooters that Brian brought (thanks, Brian!) I showed everyone (repeatedly) how to use the ball winder. I don't think I've ever done anything as much fun as drunken wool winding:



That's just from that one night! Then on the actual day of my birthday I was told by Nat not to come home early cause she had to have time to plan her birthday surprise for me. Turns out she'd bought a lemon pie for me, because my favorite dessert is lemon meringue pie, and she'd been trying to make the meringue. I guess our beater isn't fast enough though, so she ended up making me cinnamon raisin French toast instead - which were super good, and we still had pie afterwards, so I was super happy! She'd also gotten organic snickerdoodles. (So, logically, yellow round thing with slices taken out of it + small round thing = Pac-Man picture.)



(We have a thing about making food in the shape of Pac-Man:




See? We were especially proud of the pancakes. Kudos go to Nat for those. My roommate is awesome.)

She also got me the Flight of the Conchords CD, a pineapple lip gloss and the best birthday card ever. Handmade, handpainted, and it made me cry and laugh at the same time. (I do believe I snorted.)




Now onto knitting news! (Cause, you know, that stuff about the ball winder had nothing to do with knitting.)

I finished the Fingerless Gloves of Doom, Take II. No, I don't have a picture because I'm an idiot and didn't take any yet. No, I can't take one now because they're in my locker at work. No, I'm not wearing them so much there - I started bringing a blanket to my desk instead cause dang it, that place is getting colder every damn day.

I worked a little on my Sunday Market shawl. I made about... oh... two inches' worth of progress. Plain stockinette is boring. So to liven it up, I decided to try continental knitting instead of English style. I can't do the purls yet, but the knits go so much faster! It's easier on tiny needles than on my 13s, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

Speaking of tiny needles, I wound up my odd lot of Fleece artist and cast on my very first lace project, the Butterfly Lace Stole from Knit N Style magazine:



I cast on using size 3 needles instead of the suggested size 6, which means that I am totally disregarding gauge, which is reckless and dumb what with the not knowing the yardage on that skein, but... I don't really care. If it's too big, it's a shawl. If it's too small, it's a scarf. If it's useless but pretty, it's wall art. So there.

I also kind of went book-crazy. Chapters is having this sale right now where if you buy 3 books, you get the 4th free... So... Here's what I got:

Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules!, which I devoured and loved every bit of. Great book, super helpful.
Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr, which has a few so-so designs but a also few really freaking great ones.
Judith Durrant's One-Skein Wonders. Some super cute stuff in this one, and y'all know I've got plenty of just-one-skeinage.
Jackie Pawlowski's Field Guide to Knitting, for the impressive stitch and edging library.
Creepy Cute Crochet by Christen Haden. I don't crochet but it looks like I'm gonna damn well have to start.

The astute among you will have noticed that that is five books, not four. Well, that would be because I got three other books, but they're not knitting books. I got 'Fragile Things' by Neil Gaiman, which is a short story anthology that I am really liking so far, 'Those Left Behind' in hardcover which is the first Serenity comic book, and this gem, 'POPS!' by Krystina Castella, which is super awesome recipes for frozen pops and desserts, classy-style. It is unbelievably cute, and I might just have to go back for her cupcake book.

And finally, I have yet to mention here that my good friend Chris (the instigator of the Get Nemo a Yarn Winder Movement) has started teaching some beginners' knitting classes at Cricket Cove! Yay Chris! I'm super psyched for him, and I know his students are in good hands. Congrats Chris!

Whew! That's it for now. I will hopefully return soon with pictures of my knitting endeavors!

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