Hmmm oops

It's shameful to stumble back here after I haven't shown my face in about 9 months. I always hate blogs that don't update! But I have the excuse that I was busy updating my LiveJournal with personal stuff... so I was updating, just not in the right place. Admittedly nobody reads this blog right now, but I have to keep my posting consistent for the time when I'll be horribly famous and people will be lining up to their computers to read me :D

For the most part, the past 9 months have been some of the most difficult I - and my family - have experienced. That's why I reverted back to my personal blog so that I could rant and rave. And that's also why I haven't really been working on anything at all fiber-related lately.

I'm hoping that 2009 will be different. I'm currently in my last semester of my Linguistics Major (God willing :/) so hopefully I future with job is around the corner. And that means expanding my yarn stash like whoah! In the meantime I have returned to the clicking needles for smaller projects. I've finished the First Socks project mentioned in my last post and am currently on a second pair. And most exciting of all, I've finally begun to get the hang of crochet!

I'm off to class now, but I'll include pictures of these things in the next post (provided that I get around to updating again :p).

Socks & Ladders

I've been hugely excited with my first sock knitting. There's something exhilarating in the knowledge that after about three years of knitting, I've finally moved onto socks. In the beginning of my knitting adventures, everywhere I looked I read words similar to the effect of "don't knit socks unless you're ready for some intense knitting!", and naturally, I thought I would wait until I was ready for such an endeavor.

And yet, I think most knitters can agree that there's really nothing complicated about a simple sock. I'm not talking about these beautiful intricate patterns like what the lovely Harlot has been knitting up lately. (note: how gorgeous is the shaping on those Francie socks? I hope to make those one day...)

So why all the trepidation for most new knitters when knitting a sock?

In the past year or so, it just came down to me having the money for some sock yarn (curse this student budget!), and then once I found some inexpensive yarn suitable for first socks, it was just a matter of time.

I'm going rather slow with my socks, I tend to work on the bigger projects I have - which are going to be gifts so they're the priorities - when I'm at home. But take along my sock when I need some portable, easy knitting. So right now I'm still working on the leg, and so I recognize I'm getting ahead of myself with all this "easy knitting" talk. Maybe once I get to the shaping I'll give up, or maybe I'll finish my first sock and the mandatory Second Sock Syndrome will kick in and I'll never finish the pair, or maybe I'll knit both but decide that sock knitting is just not for me and I will never knit socks again.

But I kind of doubt that.

I like knitting small things, I'm all about portable quick knits with instant gratification. Another plus is that such things make great gifts, which is a must in my books.

So, after all this rambling, here is my dedication post to my first sock... or rather cuff and leg... since that's all there is to my sock so far!! I'm posting these horrible pictures - I took them at night by the light of my desk lamp so forgive the icky quality - to show you the dreaded ladders that are must for all inexperienced sock knitters!







Note the uber wonky columns of stitches in that last picture! I only noticed it in the photograph, thankfully it's not too noticeable on the sock itself, but still very infuriating.

I suppose they don't seem too bad considering these are my first, but they're still annoyingly obvious to me (they're also much more obvious in person than in the pictures, trust me!). The worst part is that I do the very tight stitches there, I've been very conscious of trying to avoid these ladders since I started, but it's no use. I'm going to switch the stitches around on the needles to at least keep the ladders from runing down the whole length of the sock, but I can't help fearing that if I do that, I'll just create more ladders elsewhere on the sock!

Oh well.

The yarn itself is also a tad frustrating (Regia Galaxy), I like it when I see the display socks at my LYS and online, but in this the colors just aren't pooling in a very satisfactory manner, maybe because of the size being a bit larger than average women's feet? Could that be it?

Oh well x2

I'm still excited to get this project finished! I can't wait to wear my own pair of socks!!

H is for Habs

I wanted to write this up last weekend but was waiting for the opportunities to get some pictures. And now of course, a week late, this post is more depressing to write up then anything else!

Living in Montreal it's hard to not notice the flags on every car, everywhere you turn there's another Montreal Canadians logo. I wasn't a hockey fan, in fact for most of my life I actually couldn't stand the mention of the sport. But my little cousins have been rather obsessed (for lack of a better word :p), and they follow the Habs all year long. For the past few months they've been slowly teaching me the names of the various players, this, coupled with the entire city's unbridled enthusiasm finally sucked me in.

It was a great run, but tonight marked the end of the line for our precious Habs this year. It was looking good, they were awesome, and they went down hard. The final score for Philadelphia was 6-4. The habs did not want to go down without a fight tonight.

So here are my pics for this entry.


The whole city is covered in these colors. Even high end fashion stores have all their mannequins holding flags (I didn't get a chance to get a picture of some of these >.<)


Higgins! My favorite player :D


The Montreal crowd going wild in tonight's game... when we still had a chance :/


And there, on top of the tv, is the itty bitty gauge swatch I was knitting through the game (yeah I know it's really dark, sorry!). It's for my first socks, which I will eventually get around to knitting, that I'm making according Knitty's Generic Sock Template. Looks like now that the playoffs are over for us, I'll have more time to focus on my complicated knits again :/

Ah well. Maybe next time, boys. Go Habs Go!

G is for Gummies!

Well, as promised, here's my post for G! I'm determined to get my picture posts back on track!

I decided that after the healthy foods of the last post, I need to share my biggest weakness...

GUMMIE CANDY

Yup, I'm ashamed to admit it, but it's true. I was never big on this stuff as a kid, but now that I'm older I've quite literally become addicted to it and have regularly timed cravings! I do my best to avoid it of course, but I always allow myself the treat once in a while, particularly for celebration. And what better celebration than the end of yet another successful University semester? My last exam was yesterday, and I just had to mark the end with a bag of my all time favorite gummies, Allan's Old Fashioned Laces (or Shoestring Licorice), and it has to be Grape flavor.

They're actually quite rare, I find the red strawberry and green spearmint flavors all over the place, but the grape is hardly ever found. So far I only know of three stores that regularly have them in stock.

Now honestly, I'm not quite sure if these are really gummies... but they're soft and kinda' nasty in that way that only gummies can be so I'm putting them in the category! Admittedly I also have a slight obsession with the German Haribo gummies, I grew up on those wonderful Licorice Wheels. But I don't buy them as often as they're a little bit on the pricey side (and I have to be in a specific mood for them... mainly really hormonal :/).

Anyway, here are my pictures!



I think these Laces win, hands down, as the best candy because guess what? You can KNIT with them! And of course, this time around I decided to knit on some chopsticks... it was about time I put a reason to my namesake :p





Now that I'm caught up, My H entry will also be a little late because I will be taking the pictures I need this weekend and maybe even into next week if all goes as planned. But they will come!

F is for Food

This is pretty much a month late, but I think I can be forgiven since I've been busy with finals, right? :)

Well at the time that this was supposed to be posted (the week for "F" being March 16 to the 29th), I had spent a good month enjoying a lot of healthy meals that I was taking the time to prepare and set up nicely for myself. I took pictures of some of these meals in preparation for this entry, but of course there's a lot of beautifully prepared meals that went unphotographed :(

The reason I chose to use food is because it's always been a major issue in my life, and have always had a love/hate relationship with food. I struggled for the most part to enjoy my meals, but when I was younger I really hated food because of what my body looked like. I starved myself, and then binged. I was desperate to have the willpower to never put anything in my mouth again. I hated the feeling of being full and craved those hunger pangs because it meant my body was empty of food.

That of course was a very dark point in my teenage and even young adult years, but was healed very suddenly when I put all my faith in Christ. I still struggle with feels of self-worth on those bloated days, and am constantly struggling to find a healthy life style in which I can enjoy food in healthy moderation. It's difficult being dependant on my mom right now for groceries because it's hard to tell her to change, but I do my best for now and am very eager to the days when I will finally be independant and can fully implement my plans for a healthier body.

This is a typical breakfast (when I actually have breakfast :/), cream of wheat sprinkled with cinnamon and of course V8 for fibre~


A random stirfry I prepared one day, just threw together a bunch of remnants of frozen veggies we had in the freezer with some noodles, added soy sauce, and then of course a nicely prepared salad. And my usual orange pekoe tea which is something I have every day.


Another typical breakfast, this time with oatmeal and apple slices, yogourt, and of ocurse my happy tea.



This was a typical Italian dessert thing that my dad made the first day my mom left for her mother's funeral in Italy. I can't remember what they are called, but they were good! This of course is not quite as healthy as the rest of the photographs! But we always need some good sugary delights every now and then :D



And last but not least, a more typical dessert for me when my dad and I are running the household groceries (which is very rare believe me!), fruits with a nut bar.



I'll be getting around to my posts for G and H this week... hopefully o.O

Crunch Time

I'm running late on a few things, not the least of which being this blog and trying to keep it alive. I realize I'm way behind on my ABC-Along pics :( I promise I'm not giving up on those! Granted it's more out of my own sense of purpose to complete this... no one else is really expecting me to :p

In other news I have actually started one random project, and got a bit more work on my Neverending Giant Thing that scares me to no end. Here's a glimpse of it, I'm quite sure its recipient (if I can call him that, is it still a recipient if the item is never actually finished to give to him?) wont think of checking here.



And here's a picture of my random new project. I decided to get started on a baby blanket for no one in particular (though I've got a friends who are trying, so let's just say I'm knitting in faith!). I had this unlabeled skein of baby blue yarn from my mom's old stash so I decided to use it up. Not sure if I'll have enough yarn, at this point I'm hoping for the best.



The pattern is Big Bad Baby Blanket (Ravelry link)from Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook. I modified the pattern slightly for no reason in particular other than I like round numbers. And I'm enjoying the knit, I need something relatively mindless when I stare into the face of the Neverending Giant Thing. Which, by the way, has great potential if I would stop making stupid mistakes! I might have to frog half of what you see in that picture, go back to that life line (thank God for it!) and just try again.

The discouragement of a knitter.

Anyway, I'm heading into the crunch time of the semester and I'm getting stressed out just thinking of all the work I'll be doing in the next week. So it'll probably take me a while to get back to this blog, but hopefully after this week is over I'll continue with my ABC photographs.

Spring is the Season of Love

It really bugs me that I haven't been updating at all lately (aside from the ABC-Along entries... if I wasn't doing that I'd barely be touching this blog!), actually what upsets me more is that I don't have anything to blog about. Since I finished the Storm Water Shawl (which, by the way, has been an even bigger success now that it's been given to its proper owner who is comletely in love with it and wearing it constantly!) I haven't really been working on any projects (aside from the beginnigs of the Giant Thing which shall continue to remain nameless)... which really sucks because I'm missing my knits :(

Granted it doesn't help that I sprained (I think) a finger which makes the whole knitting scene a tad difficult :/

Anyway, I didn't come here to write about what I'm not doing. Instead I want to go completely GIDDY over the new Spring 2008 Issue of Knitty! Aren't the Mosey legwarmers the most PERFECT pair of legwarmers out there??? Seriously, I've been wanting to make a pair like that for ages, but had to wait until I had a better handle on cables - I didn't just want to do a couple of plain rectangles - anyone can do that! So here they are suddenly, and I"m overjoyed because I can't wait to get started on them! I actually have some yarn from my mom's stash that I think would work well, but I may have to do some gauge adjusting, which I'm never comfortable with. But this has given me new insentive to start another project! *rubs hands together*

I'm also really enjoying the Lace Ribbon Scarf, there's always the possibility of using my cashlana on it - I had a different pattern in mind for it, but either way I wanted a scarf made with it - I'm just not sure if this one would be appropriate for it. But I'll just have to try it out.

I think the texture and shaping in Talia is also completely scrumptious. That is definitely on my future to do list.

I was also looking at the patterns in the Spring '08 issue of Interweave Crochet - keeping in mind that I don't crochet (I can, but very VERY badly) - and I am yet again falling in love. I can't even begin to describe my greedy and lustful thoughts towards the Woodsland Tunic! It's totally my random hippie style. Alas, I need the crochet skills!

I also love the Bouquet Stole which I now suddenly want for my cousin's wedding in June. It's perfect for a summer wedding ceremony held outside!! Do you think I can perfect crochet and make that stole in such a short time? Probably not :( Anybody want to make make it for me? :p

If only the snow would melt away to make room for Spring... otherwise I'll never be able to wear any of these lovelies!

E is for Escape

This entry is actually late on purpose as I had to wait for this weekend to come up to take pictures to depict this letter!

I'm an escapist at heart. I do many things thay allow me live out my own personal fantasies in order to ignore the stresses of my real life. A few years ago this was bordering on being very unhealthy as I spiraled deeper into depression. I've improved a great deal by the grace of God since then, but that doesn't mean that I don't still need to escape every once in a while to take a break from real life for just a moment.

So, this weekend, March 14-16, was spent at Camp Edphy in Val Morin, Quebec with the youth group from my church and the group from a sister church. This is the second year in a row I went to Edphy with them and both times (the first time I went was exactly one year ago) have been huge eye-opening experiences.

For 3 days I have nothing to worry about except my relationship with God. For 3 days I'm free to be myself. For 3 days I cry as hard as possible, and laugh as hard as possible all at the same time. For 3 days I'm with people who understand me better than anyone else even if we've never met before. For 3 days I develop unbreakable bonds with my fellow sisters and brothers in Christ. And for 3 days I discover more about myself and others than I ever thought possible.

I returned Sunday night being physical drained while my spirit was on fire. I returned to real life on Monday morning with a migraine, a back-ache, and a couple of nearly-fractured bones (long story that involved night time, very icy patch, and me in quite a lot of pain!) but being spiritually wide awake, refreshed and ready to survive the coming month of exams.

So here a bunch of pictures of snow, snow, trees, snow, ice, and more snow :p It was a beautiful weekend. Lots of snow fell, and I mean those massive huge snowflakes that create the lovely light and fluffy snow. I may be fed up of all the snow we've been hit with this winter, but for this one weekend, it was very welcomed. Sooo beautiful.

FYI - The first picture was taken very late on Saturday evening which is why it's so much darker than the others. The others were all taken throughout the daytime on Friday.









PS. The final image? That's the spot where I slipped and nearly killed myself :p

First FO for 2008!

Well last week, I finally finished my Storm Water Shawl! I'm insanely happy with it, it was such a dream to knit up. It really is my most satisfying project so far. The most frustrating part is that due to various unavoidable circumstances, the very person I made this for is probably not going to recieve it until next weekend (a full 2 weeks past her birthday! Grrr.)

So then, I now present you, the most lovely thing these awkward hands ever created!

*drumroll*





It's wonderfully soft and silky, the drape is downright dreamy, and the pattern is simple enough that I could knit while watching movies and TV (even subtitled movies!) yet with enough variety that it didn't bore me. Now that it's blocked, I actually smell seaweed in it, which is hilarious because I think that's fabulous, but a little concerned that the birthday girl will be turned off by it. It's this earthy, natural smell that makes me want to bury my nose in it. It takes me to a place filled with golden sand under foot and a never-ending expanse of churning salt water.

A place I would love to go to after the crazy winter we've been having.

D is for Dad

It took me a while to come up with an idea for D, and for the longest time I was trying to think of pictures to represent Design... but I couldn't really come up with anything that didn't involve some psycho studio set-up, a model, loads of makeup, and tons of various fabrics XD Unfortunatly out of all those things, the only thing I couldn't muster up was a model. So here's my second idea... :p

D is for Dad

[Edit: Now said dad knows the existence of this username, so this goes out to said dad: If you happen to have been curious enough to google me... READ NO FURTHER! Sheesh... no privacy these days...tsk tsk]

He started my interest in photography and film thanks to his old equipment. We used to spend the summers riding our bikes every evening after supper, he'd bring me to the Lakeside, and we'd almost always stop for ice cream. I have his humour, his cynicism, his quick temper and his susceptability to migraines. I spent hours in the basement as a kid playing with all the goodies in there - ancient cameras, a violin, plastic toy cars LOL - listening to his jazz music, while he worked away on the computer.

I grew up actually fearing him. Resenting him for the piano lessons he put me through, and for the hours of my crying and his yelling when I couldn't get through the most basic math problems. But in my young adult years things came around. He got me a job at the office he managed and I got to know him from another perspective. I realized that he was angry so often during my childhood because of some of the things he experienced with my mom. He was a different person with the friends from work. In my family situation, things have gone from horrible to good. Not perfect, but good. And these past couple of weeks, with my mom temporarily away, things have been just a little bit better.

He's the pastor at our church, an inspiration to many people there - who often come to me and tell me what he's done for them - and his sermons are always beautiful. I swell up with great pride when I hear that quiet man become so emotional and emphatic up there, and hope to one day inspire the same emotions in others. And now, this very day, I've started work on an afghan for His Chair in the living room. Hopefully it will be finished by Christmas (though I doubt it) and hopefully he will enjoy the surprise.

So, I'm not actually going to put up pics of my dad because he'd probably throw something very big and heavy at me if I either a) tried to take a pic of him or b) actually did post them publically online. So instead I'm sharing pictures of the flower that my dad and I have enjoyed today, that has been sitting between us at the table for every meal today. That has shared in our conversations, in our laughter, in our bitterness towards the weather (really, enough snow already!). I see it and I think of him right now. We're not a family that shares in emotions, which I regret quite a bit, but something so small as this flower kinda makes me feel like not everything needs to be said outloud. Hey, it's a bit of a stretch, but this is my blog and what I say, goes!





Thanks, dad. I'm sorry I haven't always been the best I could be. I hope to one day make you proud, like really really proud. Untill then, just know that I love you.