prairiedaun

Today has been a wild and crazy day, my friends. Went off in the morning to take mom to a medical appointment in St. James/Assiniboia, then headed over to a bank then Tim Horton's for some tea and a donut, then knitting. Had a very lovely chat with an elderly englishwoman about knitting and craftwork in the UK versus craftwork here. She used to do very fine fair-isle mittens, and I told her about my vest.

After that I headed over to the St/ James Assiniboia library and looked over their books- found a complete gem of a knitting book: The Swedish Mitten Book: Traditional Patterns from Gotland. It's very no-nonsense, giving basic (very, very basic) instructions for construction, then 39 colourwork patterns.

I was so caught up in my books that I didn't notice my phone vibrating, and then I realized I was late to meet mom (I ended up getting there only 10 minutes late, but still.) So I rushed back over to the clinic and took forever to find a place to park and then once I actually got inside, it took me nearly another 20 minutes to actually find her (for a place that small, it's like a rabbit's warren). Turns out she'd had to have bloodwork done, and then had to wait another 2 hours before doing more tests after eating, so we had a small lunch (it was 11) and she sent me off home.

So, to home where I got mail from LAc du Bonnet and a schedule for Wolseley Wardrobe and managed to get a bit of spinning in while listening to podfic before mom called again, and it was back out to St. James again. To celebrate her having the rest of the day off we trundled down to Aqua Books and Eat! Bistro and had... second lunch? Early dinner? We then browsed the books before heading over to St. Boniface to go to the chiropractor.

Eventually, eventually we got home to the cat who seems to be getting more and more anxious if she doesn't know where we are. I still have some things to work on, and soon I'll be heading out to spend time with my girlfriends, making cookies and playing Beatles Rockband.

These, right here, are why it's a good thing I don't have a credit card:

Cashmere/merino roving.

Hand painted Corriedale wool top

The sword and the faith necklace, made by sharpest_rose

And in non-Etsy coveting, Norwegian Lusekofte Kit - Blue. I predict it would look like crap on me, but... historical knitting! Mybe I mostly covet the clasps at the neck.

Spent the evening curled up on the couch with mom watching Up. We laughed, we cried, it was the perfect movie to watch tonight because- SQUIRREL! -we had kind of a rough morning with each other, but things are better now.

I've been knitting the Saroyan shawl out of the Blackstone Tweed in Cranberry Bog that she brought back from Kelowna for my birthday. It's knitting up beautifully- I can't wait to be finished so I can block it and wear it somewhere.

Also, I feel like I should share the one firm resolution I did make for New Year's: I plan to roast a duck sometime this year. I have plans, my friends. Big plans.

Okay, so today is possibly the day when I officially start to feel old and out of touch with the younger generation.

I was watching MuchMusic (Adam Lambert! Finally!) and they were showing the texts at the bottom of the screen. One caught my eye:

Justin Bieber is the fish!!

Okay. I don't quite get the Justin Bieber thing at all, but okay. But... the fish? Is this some new slang I don't know? I'm imagining some cockney-ish Newfie slang where cod = god = fish, but... what?

I'm oooooooooold! *shakes cane, yells about the lawn, etc. etc.*

I've begun cleaning up my computer/stash room. It's quite the process- I've been meaning to for a while but the kick in the pants was Sunday when one of my aunts pushed open the door to say goodbye before going back to the farm, and I shouted "nooooo!" because, well. I don't want her to think poorly of me, but this room was almost bordering on disgusting.

The one big problem was my yarn. The system I had going before September wasn't great, but I had most of it packed away. Unfortunately that a) meant that I could no longer see my stash and then felt okay about acquiring more, willy-nilly, and b) my mom decided to put away the yarn that hadn't been packed away, but not in any of the places I'd been meaning to put them. So I didn't really know where anything was, or what I had.

And then I came back from the retreat with more yarn, then mom gave me baskets to put my yarn in, but those take up too much room so they just ended up stacked in the middle of the room, and then I was working on my project and papers were everywhere and then mom cleaned up the rest of the house so all sorts of randomness ended up in here, and you can see where this is going. Hoarders territory.

So tonight, after cranking the Lady Gaga I got to work. I'm not done yet, and I probably shouldn't have stopped for dinner when I did, but most of the yarn that was everywhere on the floor is now is baskets out in the hall, same with the papers, both patterns and work things, and sweaters and socks and other randomness and just... it's not done, but already I feel like I can breathe.

Taking a break/finished for the night so I'm reading The Opinionated Knitter by Elizabeth Zimmermann and have already learned a few new things, one of which actually made me say "oh!" I <3 EZ.

Also, this is for all my Winnipeg and Manitoba girls (both here and away): Winnipeg: Love and HAte, gorgeous photography of this city by Bryan Scott. Possibly my favourite entry is No One Here Gets Out Alive I also love the quotes about Winnipeg, on the sidebar.

A moral cesspool, the stench of which is making itself felt throughout the Dominion. -Toronto newspaper, 1910

I'm pretty glad that I decided that my new year doesn't start until after I get more sleep and wake up again because I just had a NEAR CATASTROPHIC FAIL with the stairs, and would hate for that to be my start in 2010.

I'm not sure what happened first, me slipping on a step or the railling breaking off the wall, but I have a bruised ass and sore arms. It could have been much worse, though.

*shakes fist* Damn you, gravity!

I'm running late but two things- I'm desperately trying to sew in the last of the ends on my vest before tonight. I don't have much left, but I really just want to be done this stage of the project before the new year because it's been languishing.



Secondly, while not a resolution my plan is to spin up the bag of roving I got last year into either a singly ply laceweight or double ply fingering weight and knit it up into a lovely shawl. This is my grand plan- ideally, I want to have it done for my birthday. So, we'll see how that goes.

So much to do. :| I wish the best for all of you in the new year.

ETA: 134 ends sewn in on the vest. Thank god that's done and hasn't spontaneously unravelled the entire thing. Will pick it up again in the new year to do the steeks and start finishing it up.

Have started the Vespergyle mittens. Still haven't finished weaving in the ends on my vest or finished the two shawls that are WIPS, but I don't care all that much, honestly. I don't really have that much creative oomph at the moment, and the mittens are ngaging me on a technical level, my mind is thinking about sweaters for next year.

I was thinking of trying 12 sweaters in 12 months, but that way lies madness. I know. Especially since wanting to knit through my stash will involve one or maybe even two fingering weight sweaters. Eek.

Also sucking my creativity is the chaos and disorganization of this room. I like a little chaos, but this is just intimidating.

Oh man, I'm so out of shape and stuffed full of food- I tried to shovel the driveway earlier, and I could only go about 1/2 hour before giving up. Stupid heavy snow.

It's been a very different Christmas this year- instead of the usual visiting that happens on Christmas eve, my one aunt came over on the 23rd, the other came over last night instead of us all heading out to another place for our traditional spaghetti feast and today we didn't head out to the country- we had planned to go tomorrow, but with all the snow the road to the farm hasn't been plowed yet. Maybe Sunday? IDK.

Also, with all of these changing plans mom and I have lots of food that's not going to get eaten. We're figuring out how to save stuff for later. I've already put to use the three (well okay, I only used the one) cookbooks I got as gifts. Also, I got some ramekins, a meat thermometer and a titanium cheese grater. Also, a wooden stick that is apparently better to use when stirring pots? IDK, but I approve of getting kitchen stuff for Christmas, since I'm often the one trying new things. Such as a baked egg in my new ramekin.

Baked egg

Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease ramekin(s) with butter. Add 1 whole egg and 1 egg white to ramekin. Add 1 Tbsp of milk (whole milk or cream preferred, but anything works. Well, maybe not chocolate or buttermilk or anything like that.) Top with some grated cheese and/or pepper, to taste.

Place ramekin(s) on baking sheet in oven for 10-14 minutes, depending on whether you enjoy soft and runny, or firmer egg yolks. Make toast for dipping , or whatever. Maybe you don't like toast, skip this part. Remove eggs, from oven, wait a minute or so for it to cool slightly.

Using oven gloves, place ramekin on dish and serve with toast (or whatever). Enjoy!

I used my nifty new, fine grater and put some applewood smoked cheddar on my egg and it was delicious. Mmm.

I also got The Umbrella Academy: Dallas and homg. That. Was. Awesome. There were several moments where I'd read a page, go "holy shit!" then turn the page and shout it again. Mom is a little whatever about it, but she keeps asking me how I can read them because she has a hard time reading thought and speech bubbles.

I'm still loving the spindle, and I'm getting pretty good at it already. I don't know what the sales will be like tomorrow at the bookstore, but I'm tempted to walk down to the mall and see if I can find Respect the Spindle or some other spinning book to keep me occupied for the next week or so.

Wow. So all of my rage and angst from yesterday was totally unjustified- I feel like a massive tool now. Sorry, everybody.

I'm very nearly done getting things for presents- now to wrapping. Also, I bought my Christmas present at the shop tonight- an awesome Tabachek spindle. The Whorl is ebonized oak, the shaft is hickory, it weighs 37.5 g. Misty sent me home with some of the roving she bought (I also picked up some sea silk for once I start to get the rhythm of it) and I'm enjoying it- I definitely need to practice, but I'm already excited about the possibilities. Eeee, spindling.