Feelin' Groovy

Hello lamppost, whatcha knowin'? I've come to watch your flowers growin'!

Today's been a really good day. And I mean, a good day. I woke up feeling rested, which I never do, and got early leave from work after about an hour. Then a couple of my coworkers came and hung out here at the apartment for a couple hours, and one of them, Marc-Andre, plugged up my hard drive in my new computer. And that means I have all my files back! I'm so excited! I didn't realize how much music I actually listened to until I had nothing at all.

I don't actually have time to do a full-blown progress post like I was planning to, with pictures of the frogged hat and hermit crabs and whatnot, but here are two things I did want to put up:

1. Finally. Finished. The Sunday Market shawl. OH MY GOD.



The laddering process was fun, but it took for-goddamn-ever.



Totally worth it though. It came out looking amazing. I gave it to my friend Elise for her birthday (which meant staying up till 3 am to finish the ladders, but whatevs) and she really liked it.




2. Baby hat ftw:



That's totally not the right color, but whatever. It's almost done. Which is good because I just got a whole whack of books with baby knitting patterns, and there are babies popping up all over the place around me, so I've got some knittin' to do!


That's it for tonight. Ceeeeeeeelia, you're breakin' my heart, you're shakin' my confidence daillyyyyyyyy... Ohh Ceceeeeelia, I'm down on my knees, I'm begging you please to come home!

(It's funny to me that that song makes me so happy. It's about a chick cheating on her boyfriend.)

Do Not Adjust Your Set

So my computer decided it couldn't take the heat anymore (literally), and kicked the proverbial bucket. In order to fully comprehend the impact this has had on me, let me tell you about my computer.

My computer is named Deep Thought. It was named after the second most powerful computer in the Universe (according to Douglas Adams). It was most definitely not the second most powerful computer in... well anywhere except maybe the room it was in, and only then if there were less than two other computers present. It was, however, a huge improvement on my previous computer, which I had dubbed The Millenium Falcon. The MF was a hunk of junk. State of the art when we bought it, sure, in ... 1990? Something like that? 2GB hard drive, 33.6k dial up modem, ran Windows 95... Took about two hours to download one song, and even then you could only store about twenty on the thing before it began acting like a constipated elephant.

So when I got my first job, wage-slaving it at Toys R Us at 16, I saved up and bought myself a brand spankin' new computer. 80GB hard drive, Windows XP when it was still the New Thing, DVD drive and CD+RW drive... Not a super fancy video card or sound card, but enough at the time to do what I wanted it to do.

That computer has been with me for just about, oh... six years now? It moved to Montreal with me. It moved back to Moncton with me two years later. It's had parts taken out, put back in, it's had Windows reinstalled and all kinds of things have gone wrong with it. For a while now it's been ailing, the motherboard wasn't quite what it used to be and I think that reinstalling a maybe not-so-legit copy of Windows on it wasn't quite a smart thing to do (I blame the ex-boyfriend for that, I told him to use my copy but nooo, that wasn't good enough for him... But that's another story). So it's been stuck on Service Pack 1, with no Windows updates available because it wouldn't clear the genuine software verification, I couldn't run more than two programs at once without everything slowing way down and some programs would just not run at all. If I needed to restart the computer, I had to shut it all the way down, power it off and unplug it, leave it alone for about a half hour and then maybe it would come back on if it felt like it. So instead I just left it on. All the time.

So when I got home last week and found it powered off, alarm bells started blaring in my mind. And sure enough, no amount of trying would get my poor computer to power back on.

It kinda sucked for timing, too, cause I'd been meaning to blog about a bunch of things that had been happening that week, and now all the pictures are stuck on that hard drive. My mom gave me her computer, which is in much better shape than Deep Thought was and is now purring happily in my living room, but - and let me stress the importance of this - I have no files on this thing. No music. No pictures. No saved text files with appointment times, bookmarks, resumes, what have you.

I feel almost naked, and I am going into severe music withdrawal.

So the point of all this is, until I can get my hard drive slaved to this computer, I can't write about all the stuff I wanted to write about. So let's just pretend there are some pretty pictures here of the hat I made then frogged, the new yarn I got, the scarf I'm making for a coworker, the baby hat I'm halfway done with, the hermit crabs from the beach, the necklace I bought at the market...

Or better yet, I'll save all those for a future post. How's that?


Oh, and PS. Deep Thought will not go unremembered. My friends and I are planning to take it apart and use the innards for art.

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!

Party Hats On... NOW!

Yay, I'm now officially 22!

That is all.


(I might post later today. Maybe. If I'm not drunk.)

Quick FO And Some Silliness

Yep, you read that right! A real, honest-to-goodness FO. Sure, it's a simple one, but whatever.





Easy peasy lemon squeezy handwarmers. I used size 7 needles and about half a skein of my red Manos Del Uruguay 100% Wool. I especially like how the stockinette looks in this gauge, it makes a really nice fabric:



Nathalie called them my 'Fingerless Gloves of Doom', so that is what they are. These aren't even worked in the round, that's how lazy I am. But my hands were cold at work all the time, so I figured quick and easy was the ticket. Actually, these ended up going to a coworker, so my hands are still cold at work... Which is why I cast on a second pair, this time with ribbing at the top so it doesn't curl. (Duh, stockinette curls, you'd think I'd have caught on by now...)

Progress on the second pair:



This pair is done in Twilleys of Stamford 'Freedom Spirit', in a purple/green colorway which I guess is called 'Zest' (it doesn't say that on my skeins, but Ravelry says that's what it's called, so... Yeah.)

And now for some very silly things.

First up is a picture of my friend Tom, "cosplaying" as the Prince of All Cosmos with the help of a couch cushion and a knitting needle:



And finally, this is what happens when Chris decides he wants to use the camera, but he isn't sure which button does what. (This was hilarious to watch.)



My friends are awesome.

Ten Signs You've Been Watching Too Much Veronica Mars

10. You start narrating everything in your head.

9. You treat every single detail as if it's super important. A receipt from Wal-Mart in the garbage? That must be a clue!

8. You have freaky ass dreams about Logan Echolls refusing to sell you a voodoo doll. (Actually, that's if you watch too much Veronica Mars... and are also crazy.)

7. You cannot get that god damned Dandy Warhols song out of your head.

6. Your knitting blog reminds you of that one episode where Beaver wasn't invited to the shooting range his dad and brother were going to, cause he said "Guess I'll just sit here and knit something then." (That line was hilarious.)

5. You learn that Jason Dohring is in Moonlight, playing a vampire P.I. no less, and despite the clip you find on YouTube being incredibly cheesy, you immediately resolve to watch it anyway.

4. You're still humming 'We Used To Be Friends'.

3. You finish watching Season 1, and instead of waiting for the next download to finish, you race to take the bus to Wal-Mart a half hour before they close to buy Season 2.

2. At work, you suddenly find yourself emulating Kristen Bell's voice and mannerisms.

1. You really, really wanna be a P.I. now.

The Great Cake Caper

... Heehee, caper. I like that word. Caper. It makes everything sound like so much fun, even if it was just making a cake. Although, to be fair, it was a pretty intense cake project.

My friend Natalie (not my roommate, another one... I know like five. They do get confusing) was turning 25 and having an 80s themed party. It was a lot of fun - we all dressed up, we played Singstar and Guitar Hero 80s, and we watched Interview with the Vampire (which, okay, is not an 80s movie, but we enjoyed it all the same, dammit.) Some choice pictures:


The birthday girl with her tiara, courtesy of me and Nathalie!


I think my favorite part of this one is how fierce Nathalie looks with that guitar controller.


Chris didn't dress up so much - that polo is from the 80s, but it still needed something else. Enter Elise and the rad Flock of Seagulls hairdo.


Pac-Man nacho dip by Elise.


Charles getting into the spirit of his 'chezzy rocker' outfit.


Nathalie went the Madonna route with her costume.


I am told this is very 80s... I think it's nifty, anyway.

I decided I would provide the birthday cake, and that it would be a red velvet 'bloody' cake. Now somewhere along the way I learned that Natalie didn't like chocolate, so... well, red velvet was out, since it's a chocolate-flavored cake. It kinda screwed with my ideas on what to do decoration wise. But then inspiration hit - probably from watching wayyyy too much Buffy - what about a coffin cake? Vanilla, with gray-tinged icing, and slightly ajar, with raspberry coulis leaking out of it. Not 80s, no. But still wicked cool. So Nat and I pumped ourselves up with lots and lots of 80s music and set to work.

My roommate helped me hardcore with this project - it was my design and all, but most of the actual decoration work was hers. All I really did was make the mix, pour it in a square pan, and turn the oven on. Then I made the gray icing, but she did supervise that - as she frequently reminds me, she's taken entire courses on how to mix colors, so she knows much more than I do about that. Then Nat cut the cake in a coffin shape, and we baked a separate, thinner layer for the lid and cut that to shape. We cut out a hollow in the cake, about half an inch deep, and smushed a bunch of raspberries with a tiny bit of sugar, and filled the hollow with them. We iced the sides and the rim of the hollow, then put the lid on top - slightly open, and iced that. Then we used more of the raspberry mush to have it overflowing out the side that was open, and over the side of the plate as if something had crawled out of the coffin trailing blood. Nat used green icing and some sugar roses to decorate the top and sides of the coffin, and I put a gummy spider on one side of it and one in the trail of blood. The end result was exactly what I wanted, and a big hit at the party - it tasted pretty darn good, too. (Progress pictures are coming - as soon as Nat unloads her camera!)


We made cupcakes to match, since the cake ended up pretty small:


Note the gummy spiders and smushed raspberry 'blood'.


It was Charles's birthday the day after, so we made him special boobie cupcakes (linked in case you don't want to see cartoony boobies). He liked them.


All and all, a good time was had by all. (Except maybe for poor Nick, who is severely allergic to Jake, Natalie's cat. Poor thing.)


On the knitting front, I haven't really gotten anything done. I had kind of a long week, with work (my company moved buildings this week, it's a mess), and scriptwriting, and the cake-planning and shopping, plus yesterday I had a bellydancing workshop and dinner-and-show event for my teacher's 10-year anniversary of dancing. It was a lot of fun, but... this weekend tired me right out.