Socktopus!

The winter knitty is now up! I like Socktopus!

I have been a delinquent blogger. Just to catch you all up, I spend the first week in October in Sydney, NS on a course and then spent mid October to mid November on the Hudson. Since I got back I have been catching up on domestic type stuff and performing my Christmas elf duties. I have no knitting projects to post right now because I had the crazy idea of taking on a big project as a Christmas gift. Chritmas is two weeks away and I still have half a sleeve, button band, and all finishing to do! Eek!

The new car is working out pretty good too. It does all kinds of neat little things. For instance, to keep your headlights clear it sprays them with washer fluid every fifth time you spray your front windshield with fluid. If you are using your windshield wipers then stop at a light, it automatically reduces your wipers to intermittent mode to save energy. I'm also discovering that the 6-speed tiptronic (sport mode) automatic is fun.

No explanation needed

2007 VW Rabbit

Mine.

Out to sea again

Later on this week I am setting sail on the CCGS Hudson  for a month of playing Ship's technician. I think the plan is to go work in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  I still have a lot to do before I go, like restocking parts on the ship, a few little equipment problems to fix, and of course, packing my knitting for the month! I am hoping to make a dent in the Christmas knitting as it will be almost Christmas time when I return.  I am not really looking forward to this trip, but it will fund my stash nicely.

Have a good month, everyone!

Pacafiesta 2008

This is my first Pacafiesta. It was a little smaller than what I was expecting, but there was still lots of yummy yarn and cute Alpacas.


I came home with two skeins of sea silk from the Black Lamb. They are based in Ontario and use the same supplier as the Fleece Artist so they have a lot of the same yarns. The woman sounded slightly bitter over this and pointed out that she used that supplier first.



These two skeins are from a handsome Alpaca named Winston! He lives in New Brunswick. I had to have it because of my sister's dog who is also named Winston and is quite lovable. Winston the Alpaca seemed much less needy then the canine who bears the same name.



The lovely ladies from the Loop had a booth set up where I saw this and fell in love with it even though I do not spin. It came home with me.



And so did this. Now I just have to figure out how to work it. Morgan suggested that vertically challenged folks should wear high heels to spin. Finally I have a use for those painful high heeled boots I bought at Also years ago.


And finally, an FO! Dovetail Pullover by Kathy Zimmerman from Spring 2008 Interweave Knits. It was done in 5 skeins of Cascade 220 Superwash that I got at the Loop last winter. The sleeves are kinda big and I have not blocked or washed it yet so I am thinking it will all be a little big. I think it will still be quite cozy though.

Eye Candy

As we are all working through our Monday blahs, here's some eye candy to get you through your day. I got this when I went to Have a Yarn back in August. It was days after returning from sea so I had some cash to burn and needed to cure my weeks of yarn withdrawal. Have a Yarn has so much Fleece Artist! There is a whole room of it!

First up, Hand Maiden Lace Silk. I don't think I own anything this colour, but this one spoke to me. I saw a yarn the spoke to me once and I did not buy it. This was over a year ago and it haunts me still to this day.



Secondly, Hand Maiden Camelspin. It's soft, it's red. 'Nuff said.



I also got a Perl Grey pin which seems to have gone missing right now. It is a seahorse. Maybe it went for a swim.

Weekend house guest

I was planning a quiet weekend of catching up on the house work and some errands when I ran into an old friend downtown who somehow managed to talk me into having him over for the weekend. I reluctantly agreed as he can be a bit dramatic and needy sometimes.

After a nice little lunch with Mrs.Happy and her Mr. on Spring Garden Henry helped me pick out a new hat looked around some other shops and went for some groceries at Pete's.

One of my errands today was doing something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I went to Lily's on Dresden Row and got a proper fitting bra, or I should say, I invested in a proper fitting bra because it better last 20 years. The staff is lovely there, they really know their stuff and they have sizes for everybody. The price tags are pretty high but I have to say, this feels like nothing I have ever worn before.

Time to go. Henry is going to curl up and watch some Battlestar Galactica with me tonight.

Flu season is on it's way

I just ordered these...

Shrug

Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style, originally uploaded by leclerc_jk.

Another FO...
Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style in Rowan Cashsoft Aran that I got on sale.
This knitted up so quick! It took about two weeks. I think I'd like to do another someday.

Tidal Streams

I am way behind on my blogging, but for now a couple FO's to tide you over.

While I was away I did two versions of Ilga Leja's Tidal Streams.  

First, I did the stole version in Estelle Arequipa.  I followed the pattern exactly and used just over one skein.  The deeper colour gives this stole a very different look than the sample on the pattern, so instead of calling this one tidal streams, I call it Lava Streams.  It drapes beautifully because of the bias knitting.

For the second version I did a scarf in Celestial Merino Dream, but I left out the ruffle and instead of only doing the number of repeats suggested in the pattern, I kept knitting until I ran out.  After blocking, my scarf is 80 inches long!  It doesn't have quite the same drape without the ruffle, but I am still pleased with the results. 

Every Technician's Worst Nightmare

After 20 hours of internet downtime, near mutiny from the crew, and being yelled at during breakfast by a scientist, I am pleased to report that the internet is back up.
It is surprising how upset people got considering this ship didn't even have internet until May 2008. Besides, it's not like we ran out of coffee.

100th Post

To celebrate my 100th post I finally added these sweet ravelry progress bars.


In other news, I am 10 days into my 28 days of sea life. The past few days we have had lovely weather and things have been relatively quiet for me, except for the other night when I got a call out after I got out of the shower and was in my pajamas and everything. The MVP (moving vessel profiler) which is quite essential to the survey because it gives an accurate speed of sound at different water depths decided to stop commicating. So there I was on the after deck in my ducky pajamas, steel toed boots, bright orange coat and hard had working on this thing. I wish I had a picture of how ridiculous that must have looked. I have diagnosed the problem even though I have never worked on this thing in my life, and the manual for it is missing! I don't have the parts on board though so I am waiting until we go into a port next week to get them. In the meantime we are using the old school gear for sound velocity.



I have been getting some knitting time in the evenings on my Tidal Streams scarf by Ilga Leja. The yarn is Celestial Merino which was given to me by the lovely ninja. Sorry about the flash but it is hard to ger much natural light through a tiny porthole. There's lots of light up on the bridge, but I don't want to unleash all the crazy on the Captain right now. Being the girl on the crew is strange enough, but being the girl who takes pictures of knitted things would be going to far. Although, I would like to take a picture of a sock in progress once we get to Nain and challenge the Yarn Harlot to get a picture of her travelling sock there!

St. Anthony to Cartwright

Finally, things are starting get back to normal around here. We had a pretty rough start to the trip and had to stay in St. John's for a couple days to fix the ship up before we could sail. After getting away there was a bit of a leak in the Engine room and we had to go into St. Anthony Saturday to get things sorted out. St. Anthony is a cute little spot.

We spent yesterday steaming to Cartwright, Labrador where we will be working for the next few days. It was a bit windy and not very pleasant. I spent the morning curled up in my bunk feeling a little green. (I was not the only one) Today all is well and we are having nice weather as we run our lines off the coast of Cartwright.

The end of another long day

Julie2008 002, originally uploaded by leclerc_jk.

Close to Cape Spear, Newfoundland.

Lava Streams

One of the most stressful things about packing for any trip is deciding which projects to bring and then obsessing about it you have brought enough and if they are appropriate projects for where you are going, etc.   I may be a tad neurotic.  

I decided to do Tidal Streams by Ilga Leja.

It's nice stressfree knitting with an easily memorized pattern.  This stole is knit on the bias to give it lovely drap much like the Clapotis, while sounding less like a disease.  It's coming along so well I have also started a scarf version in Celestial Merino Dream - Aquarius , but I am leaving the ruffle out on this one to sea how it turns out.  

Along with the Scarf and stole I am bringing enough sock yarn for 4 pairs of socks and my Cleopatra wrap that is about half finished. I hope I don't run out. Maybe I will bring some extra dental floss in case I get desperate.

On of the nice things about July...

Hi-diddle-dee-dee a sailor's life for me...

On Wednesday morning I fly to Saint John's to join the CCGS Matthew for 4 thrilling weeks of playing Ship's Technician.  This is the part of my job that is exciting and terrifying all at once, and this time more so.  

I was hired 3 years ago into a type of apprenticeship/training program and now I am finally a full fledged Marine Electronics Technologist.  This means that I will now go to sea alone, whereas before I would go with a more experienced tech to work with me.  So this trip will be my first one alone and you really never know what kind of disaster any trip will bring.  As the ship's tech I am a department of one and have a variety of equipment to maintain.  Here are just a few:  Radar, gyrocompass, electronic charting systems, autopilot, radios, global marine distress system, AIS, global positioning systems, servers, networks, computers, navigation sounders, telephone systems, sound velocity profilers, multibeam echosounders, small boat electrical systems, deisel generators, and shotguns.  My offical job description is a 23 page document that says strange things like "work in isolation that leads to marriage breakdowns" and "working ashore with risk or being stranded and attacked by wild dog packs".

Sunday will be my last day off until August 14th so I am going to really enjoy knitting while sipping coffee and watching Coronation Street.

Have a good month everyone.

Why you shoud spend your birthday among knitters...

1. They will threaten to sing happy birthday to you and announce it to the world on the KOL blog.


2. Somebody will buy you a birthday cookie.

3. There will be cool cards...


...with stitch markers inside made by Val!


and a hand made coffee mug insulator made by Mrs. Happy .


Thanks to everybody for coming out.

ps- adding tequila to birthdays with knitters may yield entirely different results.

Meme

I read this on Dispatches from Halifax, which means I am tagged... I apologize for the sheer boredom that will ensue if you read my responses.

The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing ten years ago?

10 years ago I was 14 and recovering from a bad case of mono. I got sick in mid April and did not go back that school year. Thankfully, I had done well the rest of the year and passed grade 9 anyway. My liver was out of whack for quite a while during the ordeal so I had to get blood tests done twice a week for a while. After every visit to the hospital my mom would take me to get me ice cream at the dairy delite in Lincoln.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

Seeing as it is already 8:30 pm and I got to bed at 10pm, not a whole lot.
1. Setting the coffee to brew tomorrow morning
2. Doing some knitting
3. Have a bed time snack
4. Start reading a new book. I finished the Gum Thief the other night.
5. Go to sleep.
There you have it. The exciting life of a 24 year old party girl.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Chocolate, yogurt, cheese, dill pickles, ice cream, chocolate.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
First I would hire a good financial adviser and invest most of it. Then I would pay off my debts and the debts of my family and buy myself a modest house.
I would buy a yarn store that I would run just for fun and make no money off of. I would probably just give the yarn away really.
I would donate a lot of money to local hospitals and to fund cancer research. I would also volunteer at a hospital. I used to do that in Fredericton. I also worked there at the time, so I did seem a little crazy.

5) Places I have lived:
Geary, NB
Moncton, NB
Fredericton, NB
Halifax, NS


6) Jobs I have had:
Marine Electronics Technologist
Medical Equipment Technologist
Customer Service Specialist at Walmart (in the Fabric & Craft dept. That is when I taught myself to knit!)
Hostess at East Side Marios
Worked at computer access centres in Oromocto and Geary running programs for kids in the summer. I NEVER want to do that again.

7) Peeps I want to know more about:
Whoever feels like it. No pressure.

WWKIP 2008

We came, we knitted, innocent bystanders looked confused... All in all a successful knitting in public day.

Mrs. Yes I Knit and Cali organized the whole event and did a fantastic job! Many thanks to them for putting it all together.


I had my picture taken with a local knitting (knitted!) celebrity. Things went so well that we set up a date for last evening, but alas, he stood me up. Jilted by a knitted green monster. I have reached a new low.

Tofutsies

I finished the Waving Lace socks in Tofutsies while I was on vacation.  I had more than enough yarn left to make a little pair for Anna.  Here were are modeling our stylin socks together.




And here she's doing a solo shoot.


These socks are fun to wear, but they are much better to play with!

By popular demand...

Okay, okay. Here it is. If you do decide to break in to pet the yarn, could you at least tidy up or leave some baking?

Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Moss.


Hand Maiden Casbah Sock in ? I wish they printed the colour way names on the tags.

Penelope, a pencil skirt kit in Hand Maiden Ottawa. I have always wondered what a knitted skirt would be like.

And the pèice de résistance, Hand Maiden Swiss Mountain Silk (silk and cashmere) in Midnight. Two skeins!!! I think I am going to sleep with them tonight.

New place to knit

IMG_0054, originally uploaded by leclerc_jk.

I took this lovely sunny day off from work to await the arrival of my new sofa. They were scheduled to come sometime this morning which meant I was house bound until they showed up. Lucky for me they came around 9. It is a Simmons Hide-a-bed with a chaise at one end. That end will probably be worn out within a month from excessive knitting. It's kind of big for my apartment, which explains why I am standing behind my TV to take this shot.

After that was all set up, I headed over to the sale at Tangled Skeins. I had a gift certificate that I saved just for this, so I came home with some nice stuff. Stuff so nice, I don't even want to talk about it for fear that I will come home from vacation next week to find that my lock has been picked by a small DPN and that my stash has mysteriously disappeared.

Yes, I just said vacation. Saturday I am flying out to visit my sister, niece, Winston and brother-in-law. I will also get to spend some time with an old friend from tech school while I'm there too.

But, they followed me home...

This morning I woke up around 9 ish and decided to head to the local farmers market to pick up a couple groceries. As anybody in the city knows, if you don't get there before 10 you might as well just not go unless you enjoy December 23rd type mall crowds. As is usually the case, my Saturday morning excursion downtown ends with me buying anything but groceries. (I normally just buy booze)

Specimen number 1. Tanis Fbre Arts hand dyed fingering weight wool from the loop. Everybody else is doing it.



Specimen number 2
Malabrigo Silky Wool from Tangled Skeins. It whispered to me "take me home". Actually, it was more of a shout.



Proof that yarn acquisition is not in vain- a partial FO for your viewing pleasure. Sock number one of the Waving Lace sock in TOFUtsies is fini. Disregard that unweaved in end.


I've been working on some top secret stuff that I can't share with you right now which explains my seemingly slow knitting progress, but all will be revealed in good time.

My new sofa is coming on Thursday. I think a sofa warming party is in order.

Silky Yarny Shawl

Hand Maiden Bias shawl in Rumple.  I believe the colourway is called Midnight Treasures.
This knitted up very quickly and because of the larger needle size was not hard on my wrist which has been finicky as of late.  Unfortunately, I didn't finish it in time to wear to see Leonard Cohen and therefor did not get asked to run away with him.  Maybe next time!

Escort Service

Do you need a date for your next black tie function? Somebody who likes to cuddle, go for walks and steal Arrowroot cookies from babies?



Winston has started his own escort service! You can keep him on a tight leash all evening, however, you will have to pick him up. He loves to ride in the car.

Be warned though, he will get rather sulky if he catches you petting somebody else.

Fair-Isle has been conquered.

Colour work is something I had been putting off for quite a while. Last weekend I finally tackled it and now see that it is not as intimidating as I once thought.

Pattern: Fake Isle hat from Magknits which no longer exists.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon and Briggs & Little

This weekend I am going to try to visit my folks in the outskirts of Fredericton. I don't know if it will happen though because of the flooding which is worse than the flood of '73. They have cut power to the downtown core and areas that lie along the river. My parents don't like anywhere near the river, but the transcanada does cross it at Upper Gagetown. Tomorrow night I am going to stay at my boyfriends place in Moncton while he goes to the movies, because he forget I was coming and bought tickets to something he apparently has to see. I have concluded that testosterone somehow inhibits the ability to remember dates, while estrogen enhances the ability to get upset about it.

Happy Earth Day!

To celebrate I will be soldering with lead and RMA flux, both of which are toxic. Later on though, I will be knitting. Knitting is good for the environment right??

Even though I already have 4 projects on the needles, I swatched for Fluid Linen by Ilga Leja on the weekend in Rowan Bamboo Soft. This yarn is so incredibly soft and drapey. I wish the internet had a "touch and feel" feature so you could all feel it. I have high hopes for this shirt.



I recently picked up a new set of Addi Turbos for the purpose of trying magic loop. So far I am enjoying it, as I am also enjoying this Tofutsies yarn that someone was kind enough to pick up for me in New Brunswick last summer. The pattern is Waving Lace from Favorite Socks.



Now for the recent FO's:

Some small socks for my small sister in Knitpicks Essential Tweed. The reason that I have different colored heels and toes is because when I orderd this sock yarn I didn't notice that it came in 50g balls instead of 100g balls and orderd 3 balls of different colored sock yarn. Now I will be knitting two pairs of socks in this style.



A mohair scarf in a slanted open work pattern from my stitch dictionary using Kid Mohair from London-Wul.

New Patterns to Love

Ilga Leja released a beautiful new collection.

www.ilgaleja.com

I want to make them all!

Maybe my "gathering" instinct is a little too good...

Or maybe I just need to be gathering for a clan and not just for myself.

I ordered a new sofabed this weekend. It's a simmons queen size sofabed with a chaise at one end, which will become my knitting sanctuary. Also, it will be a comfy place for company to sleep!

Sooo... if anybody wants a blue microfiber double sofabed. It's not in bad shape. There are no stains or tears, it' s just not the most comfy thing in the world. If somebody would like to take it away, it's free.

The other thing that I gathered this weekend without needing in anyway is this cute pair of shoes! They call them twins because they are similar but not the same. How cute!

I can has new Yarn Harlot book?

Yes I can! I went to the Dartmouth Chapters today to pick it up after seeing on line that they had 10 copies in their inventory. It's not out on the floor yet though, it's out back so you have to ask for it. Will they be totally confused and take forever to find it all the while thinking you are a little nuts? Well, yes. Is it worth it? Yes. I laughed while drinking my latte and looked a little nuts again.

I am satisfying myself by reading about knitting after a few days of numb fingers and burning wrists. They are feeling better now, but I want to let them rest a little bit more.

Proof.

Proof that I have been knitting. I haven't been posting a whole lot lately.

This is the humble beginning of the Dovetail Pullover from the latest issue of Interweave. I had bought this Cascade 220 superwash for another project but it wasn't working out so it has been retasked. I have very little cable experience but so far all is going well.





I have been working on this one a while now. It's the Cleopatra Wrap from Sensual Knits in Alpaca Cloud. Whenever I work on it I can't help thinking that it would be a nice "something blue". Maybe if I pack it away for 20 years it will get it's chance.

Spring is around the bend?

It better be because I have started my spring cleaning. Today I dropped off three bags and a box of stuff to the Salvation Army, and I organized my stash and knitting area (my whole living room). Maybe it is not so much spring cleaning as "my boyfriend is away for the next month and I need something productive to do besides sulk cleaning", but that name is just too long.

I also took a drive out to Tantallon to go to the Basket of Yarn and check it out. I saw on the website that she is doing a Fair Isle class which I have been waiting to learn so I signed up. I have already done my homework. It's a nice little shop and she has a couple things that I have not seen in town, like a good selection of Briggs and Little, laceweight Malabrigo (beautiful!!) and some hand dyed from Chile that I forget the name of. There was also a cat sleeping in a basket.

I finished and photographed my Colinette Jitterbug socks. I have heard that this yarn bleeds very bad when washed. I have not washed or worn them yet, so we shall see how they hold up.


Just as I am writing this my smoke detector goes off because I burnt the pizza I had in the oven. Maybe I should be taking a cooking class too.

The Great Hair Donate of 2008

Before...

The big cut...

After...

I now have 10 inches of hair to donate. Also I am going to see Leonard Cohen in May!!!