Tagged

Tagged by yesiknit.blogspot.com

The Rules:Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself.

1) I start listening to Christmas music in October and last year put up my tree on Nov.7

2) I work on ships but don't know how to swim.

3) I only make my bed about onth a month and consider it a huge waste of time.

4) I am a member of a union called the International BROTHERHOOD of Electrical Workers. When I get letters from them, they are signed "fraternally yours" which drives me crazy.

5) I grew up in nearby New Brunswick, but never visited Nova Scotia until I was 19.

6) I hate the noise made when you move stuff around in a freezer and boxes rub up against the frost in the freezer.

7) I am horrible with plants and even managed to kill a cactus.

8) Remember that awkward kid who got picked last for everything in gym class? That was me.

Back to the "real" world

After being gone off and on for the past few months, my sailing season is finally over and I am starting to reintegrate back into normal society. Living on a ship for 4 weeks in isolation is definately not normal society.

This past weekend, my first weekend off in weeks, I spent running errands and doing things around the apartment. I managed to finish up some UFO's but cannot show them as ther are gifts. I did however knit these two sweaters Saturday night. They are ornaments from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and a cute way to use up bits of sock yarn. I plan on starting a miniature sweater sweat shop for all the bits of sock yarn in my stash.



Halloween is tomorrow, and to celebrate I am going to Pictou to do an emergency repair on a hydrographic survey boat. It seems the hydrographer is trick-or-treating for a new processing unit for the multibeam system as the old one is dead. I have never been to Pictou before and don't really know how to get there so it should be interesting.

Here we go again

(gratuitous baby photo)

Now that we got that out of the way...
We are back out to sea, trying things out again. They managed to fix the leak so my hopes of going home for thanksgiving and seeing little Anna again were dashed.

Here is a shot I took while we were coming in the harbour the other day.

And here is the tug that escorted us in, just in case we had any problems. I was hoping they would send Theodore but I guess he had a prior engagement.

I started a this wrap last week. It is the Romantic Moments wrap by Evelynne A. Clark in some laceweight merino. It is my first try at something like this and it is already full of mistakes, but I am cutting myself some slack considering the conditions under which I have been working on it. The colour is not showing well but it is actually a sage green.

Enjoy your turkey time everyone!

Back so soon?

Well, my three week sea trip was cut down to about 3 days and I returned Monday afternoon. Why, you ask?

The ship was slowly sinking... Yes, we were taking on water around one of the eingine shafts. Thankfully, the engineers aboard are amazing and slowled the water enough for us to get safely back to Halifax. Ideally, the ship should be put in dry dock to be repaired but since the dry docks are full, they are attempting to do it underwater. So I am on standby and things at work are quite hectic!

A post from the high seas

I realize I have not even posted about the last sea trip yet, and here I am at sea again. This time I am aboard the CCGS Hudson and right now we are at about 41 N and 65 W. We just left yesterday and it has been a little but rocky out here. The nice thing about the Hudson though is that we have the internet and satellite TV, so it's almost as good as being at home minus all the motion. (I don't know about your house, but mine definately doesn not pitch and roll.)




I brought some knitting in hopes to get the time to do some. Among the 3 balls of sock yarn is the lacey wrap I just started in some kind of sage laceweight merino. It is my first time knitting something so intricate and delicate and the enviroment that I am attempting it in is not ideal. Walking down the hall without bumping into things is hard enough let alone trying to knit lace.

Back on dry land (sort of)

The land is not so dry, but I am glad to be back on it just the same! I won't get into the details of my trip just yet because I would first like to announce that I am now a proud auntie of the beautiful Anna Ruth, born Sept.5

Shape up or ship out

I have chosen to ship out.



I will be MIA from blogland for the next month as I will be on board the CCGS Matthew maintaining their electronics so that the Canadian Hydrographic Service can collect their data using a multibeam sonar system that makes 3D images of the ocean floor kind of like this:


This data is eventually used to make navigational charts that other sailors use. Having charts with accurate depths is needed to keep ships from hitting rocks and shoals. The ironic part is that the Matthew has actually done that before. Let's hope we do not run aground while I am on board.

And thus concludes our lesson of hydrographic operations. I apologize for the lack of knitting content.

the Harlot

No, this is not an x-rated post. It's okay, you do not have to send your kids out of the room or worry about getting into trouble for reading it at work. Just so we're clear I am not talking about Paris Hilton, I am talking about the Stephanie Pearl McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot.

Last night the harlot was at the Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax giving a speech and book signing, which may have well been stand up comedy because she is really THAT funny. Like an idiot, I forgot to pack my camera so I have no pictures, but at least I remembered her book and didn't have to ask her to sign one of my body parts. The KOLers stuck around to get our books signed last and then she mentioned she was heading over to the hotel bar if we wanted to go. So, I had a drink with the Yarn Harlot!

I also was told by the charming Master and Commander of the tall ship Silva that I look like Charlotte from Sex and the City. I suppose that is a compliment. All in a all, a very pleasant evening.

My Vacation to NB

First off, this happened before vacation, but this is what the Captain gave me for my birthday. 4 Sets of knitting needles and note the lantern moon needles on the right. He thought of this gift with no hints from me, pretty smart eh?



Last weekend, July 28th or thereabouts, I went camping with fred and a couple of his friends in northern NB. It poured rain and I am not a huge fan of camping to begin with, not to mention the fact that everybody spoke french and I didn't really catch what was going on most of the time. Anyway, that was only for two days... Here is the travelling duck supervising the pitching of the tent, which only leaked a little.



Gratuitous cat photo time. This is Ratatouille. He is about 2 months old and belongs to Freds roomates, but he is not staying as Captain Fred is allergic and what the captain says goes... poor kitty.




While in Moncton I went out to London-Wul on the Melanson road. It is such a nice shop and the owner is very sweet. They have a lot of their own fibres and yarn as they have their own farm on site. I walked out with some pink mohair, and some angora/alpaca which you would have to touch to really appreciate. If you are ever passing through the Moncton area you must go!



Lastly, I went into the local yarn/ sewing shop in Fredericton just to see if there was anything new and exciting, but not really expecting much. Surprise!! They had a variety of lantern moon bags!!! So this one came home with me. It will look really snazzy at the Yarn Harlot tomorrow!!!

I sock at this...

Sunday afternoon, in my weekend recovery mode, I went to chapters to get some much needed coffee and look at the books. I had seen this lovely sock book online and when I found it in the store I decided that it would make my life complete, for the day anyway.

I started the Embossed Leaves pattern with the ball of Jawoll which I have already started to knit and unknit countless other socks with, but I thought "this pattern will be the one!". That was a little ambitious considering I have never done socks in that degree of difficulty or read a lace chart before. I probably should have done some research before starting so that I would have known that you read from the bottom up, etc, but alas it was not meant to be. I really messed up that one and had to rip back again! I have decided that the particular ball of yarn is cursed, but I started the Go with the Flow socks from the same book last night because they looked easier. Hopefully, this will be the pattern to tame this unruly sock yarn.

I won't be at KOL again until Sept 18th because I will be in NB next week, seeing the Harlot the week after (hooray) and then going to sea for a few weeks where I won't even have internet! How will I ever survive?

A weekend tale

Here is a comic version of the drama that ensued this weekend when I introduced Fred to Henry...

(click to make larger)

A Fitted Knit and mass confusion

This is the Two Tone Shrug from Fitted Knits done in Malabrigo. There's a pretty big difference between the dye jobs of these two skeins of yarn, and it's quite obvious where I switched. Other than that it turned out ok.






The mass confusion part refers to me changing the title of my blog. Why you ask? To make you lives difficult? Well yes, and because I have been thinking about it for a while and decided that while I sail only a few months of the year I am always a techie and felt like an imposter by calling myself a sailor. Maybe I am over thinking things here as I often tend to do.

The finally finished BBB

I finally finished the boring baby blanket from the Yarn Harlot and by the end of it I was starting understand why she named it so! I used three skeins of butterfly super 10 cotton on size 6 needles. It came out almost sqaure, but it could have used a few extra rows I think.



And here it is in the baby's crib...



And finally, back by popular demand....
......Winston!!

Ontario Trip: The travelling duck strikes again

The travelling duck has been MIA for quite a while now, but has recently resurfaced to take a trip to Ontario with me. For those of you who don't know, the travelling duck went to Europe with my friend and has accompanied me at sea a few times. The first day/night of our trip was spend at an old friend's place right downtown Ottawa. Here the travelling duck is enjoying the view of a little courtyard in the byward market area.



The relaxation didn't last too long before the travelling duck had to the face the Monty Python killer rabit slipper!!! He keeps his cool throughout the attack until the rabit finally gives up after remembering the number that the last rubber toy did on his digestive tract. The killer bunny slippers were a birthday gift from my friend.



The next thrill came when the duck faced the meanest beast of all...Winston! What a challenge!



And here is my DQ birthday cake. Yummy.

Happy Birthday to me

I'm two dozen years old today

I'm in Ontario celebrating with my sister, baby to be, and a lazy dog.

FO's and yet to be started O's

Here is the sweater from Baby Knits for beginners that I made for my neice using baby cashmerino and saartje's baby booties and matching hat in some cotton. That blanket is not quite finished but I am hoping to finish it up while I'm visiting my sister in Ontario.




I stopped by LK today to pick up some sock needles and noticed that they do indeed carry Lana Grossa Royal Tweed which is called for in this pattern from fitted knits. This will be my next big project!

Another exciting weekend...well, not really.

Today I managed to take some time away from my soldering lesson preparations, living room rearrangement, and french exam studying to head over to the Atlantic Quilt and Fibre Arts Festival. I have to say that I was quite dissapointed by it really. I guess there was a fair bit there for quilters, but there were only two knitting booths, both of which are stores in the HRM anyway so they were not that exciting. I guess I was hoping for some things that I don't usually see in the stores around Halifax. So, to not make my trip over a complete loss I gave in to the Lantern Moon silk needle case that I had been eyeing. I really should have bought it when Tangled Skiens had their sale. Oh well. Here it is in all it's silken glory.






I also started the two tone shrug from Fitted Knits, except that I am doing it in one tone. It's some Malabrigo that I was smart enough to pick up on sale. It's almost done, I just have to finish off the ribbing. I can't wait to wear it, and if this chilly weather keeps up, I just might get a chance soon! Although, sun would also be nice.

Surface Mount Soldering

I attended a high reliability soldering course this week, of course working with electronics I already knew how to solder, but I hadn't yet learned how to do surface mount and use some other specialized techniques. I won't bore you with the details, but tis picture is some of the work I did on the course. This might not mean much to anybody, but try imagine putting molten metal on all of those tiny componet leads, not an easy task!

Long weekend

What a weekend I had! A friend was in Halifax to do an exam on Thursday (which he passed. yay!) so he stayed up for the weekend. To celebrate his new certification as Chief Mate, I took him to Anatolia Thursday evening for supper.

Seeing as it was a nice day Friday, I took the day off and we took a drive down to Lunenburg, because I had never been there. I was looking forward to seeing the Bluenose II, but unfortunately she was not there. It was a cute little town though, and of course, I had to stop at Have a Yarn in Mahone Bay. It's a surprisingly big store and they had some lovely things, but I managed to restrain myself from buying anything, which was hard, because there was a burgundy skien of Hand Maiden Cashmere Silk that I was quite enamored with.

This is a bit of the Lunenburg waterfront.



And this is a car I saw parked on the street there. I did laugh at it, and I took a picture!



I had knitted up this kitty a while ago and just got around to seaming it yesterday. It didn't turn out quite right. It's head is too wide and too short and the body is weird. I guess that's what you get for not doing a gauge swatch. He looks kinda mean in this picture too! He's guarding my iMac with one of his nine lives. Pattern for kitty found here, knit with some scrap dk acrylic on size 2 needles.




The highlight of the weekend though was our outing Saturday night!!! Where did we go? Well here's a hint!!!!

It was a great show, a little pricey, but very much worth it. Lumière and Gaston were especially well played. My only complaint is that they made it much longer by adding some pretty weak songs, but all in all a very entertaining show, and of course, amazing company to enjoy it with.

Yarn Sale

Something wierd is going on with Blogger and there is a strange random link that I can't get rid of...Just ignore it I guess.

I, of course, had to stop by Tangled Skiens for their 20% off sale yesterday. I managed to restrain myself and only came away with two skiens of Malabrigo and two skiens of Art yarns.

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Steph also showed me this cute bootie pattern while I was there which was great because I had been looking for the perfect bootie pattern. You can find it at www.saartjeknits.nl in her free patterns section .