February is for Failure

What have I been doing? Not much. Srsly. I finished the damn socks. finally. Mostly because I have decided to throw caution to the wind and knit at work between calls. At first I was avoiding doing this cause I felt it might screw up my concentration, but frankly it does help chill me out a bit when people call and scream at me in french.



How is work going? Well..... I'm not loving it- still having the insecurity and I've been screwing stuff up. Of course this is to be expected because I am new, but still - it makes me feel like Failey McFailureson and I don't like that....and I think my french is getting worse. Part of the screwing up is also due to the fact that I have been feeling like crap and have been some stomach issues, all of which culminated in my going to the ER on Wednesday, sitting around for 6 hours and then being told that "you don't have a lung infection or gallstones, therefore you're in great health, kythnxbye... oh wait we want to give you an ECG" I am worried that I have some sort of ulcer or digestive disorder, what ever it is- I feel that it's not in my head and it will probably require some sort of uncomfortable invasive test that will come up inconclusive. Hooray!!



But back to the angst. I have been feeling sort of 19 nervous breakdown-y and have been experiencing a big ol' crisis of confidence. Not cool- I think not drinking coffee may have something to do with this, but coffee has been making my stomach lining cry as has alcohol so I will have to hold off on those things and find some other sort of crutch.

In other news, I started some new socks as my February personal sock club socks. They are Moody Hose made out of Malabrigo sock yarn.



I am further along than this but am too lazy too take more pictures. So far they are a fun knit.....




and they are apparently delicious. NOM!

my eyes are blurry

I started my new job yesterday and I think my brain may explode from information overload. Everyone seems nice though.

I do have some new years resolutions but I am too lazy to go into them. I can say that avoiding laziness was not one of my resolutions but maybe it should be. I have resoluted (I totally just made up that word dudes) to eat better and not eat wheat and stuff. I haven't eaten any wheat since New Year's Day (excluding soy sauce) and I actually feel a bit less bilious. Hooray. In celebration, I made my lunch for tomorrow and put it in a very expensive lunch box.




bento box,. It looks little but it has a secret



pictured: bean thread noodles with soy sauce, Ume vinegar, sesame oil and wasabi mixed in, topped with cashews; and broccoli. In the other box, carrots and green beens cooked with fresh and powdered ginger,cayenne pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and sesame seeds

In other news, below is the first installment of the personal sock club. It is the RPM sock from Knitty, in SRKs On your Toes yarn.




I can't tell if these photos are blurry or if its my eyes. I think we can safely bet that they are blurry.

blurry yarn Pr0n

Christmas happened. I had a good time, I ate too much, I got business casual attire and booze for my new life.

I may have gone boxing day shopping at Romni



2 hanks Malabrigo sock yarn and 1 skein Lana Grossa ...something, calgary? caribou? colorado? I'd check the yarn but its already sealed into a paper bag with a pattern for my personal sock club 2009. As is the Malabrigo. I am as excited as my photos are blurry.


and Lettuce



4 hanks Manos del Uruguay in 34 colourway. I'm not really sure what colour it is. Laura thought it was sort of pink, I was seeing more of a murky purple-y green-y brown-y grey. Whatever colour it is, it is going to become a Briar Rose Bolero.


I also did some knitting.




This is a Meret although I am calling it my Meh-ret. It is a fun and satisfying knit but I'm not in love with the finished project. I am going to blame the yarn (fleece artist country wool.. soooo crunchy even after blocking, no wonder you have been discontinued) and the fact that I don't own a dinner plate big enough to block the sucker properly. It's ok though, I may make another one at a later date with a more appropriate yarn.




also I have started a sweater.



Well I have actually started 4 different sweaters with this Knitpicks - wool of the andes in the past few months and haven't been feeling any of them. Again I blame the yarn. Not that there is anything wrong with it- but I am used to knitting sweaters with heavy worsted/aran stuff like my imaginary boyfriend who is not that hot but he fixes things around the house and my neighbour who gets on my nerves but can be useful if for example I need to call him when I think I am having a stroke and require an ambulance. This stuff is thinner. Like a light worsted or almost a DK weight. So I decided to cast on a sweater that calls for DK weight. This is (hopefully) going to be Bridie from the Knitknit book. It is very business casual yet vintage and dare I say edgy? Yes I dare say it.... EDGY!

and that's how Skeletor saved Christmas

The Christmas knitting is for the most part finished, with the exception of the neverending scarf of malaise. I will finish that tonight as we watch the best Christmas special ever"




Here are some mittens that I knit. I think the black ones I made for myself are nicer but you cant fight city hall



Here are some presents that I wrapped. They look slightly better than last year's presents, but thats not saying much. For some reason even though I am a designer and have made many nice looking props and a full Edwardian dress out of paper, I am unable to wrap a present to save my life- so hopefully it will never come to that. There are several explanations for why I suck at wrapping presents. I think I have some sort of existential despair about present wrapping and presents in general. ie: "Why bother wrapping presents as the paper and presents will end up being thrown onto the alter of emptiness. We are surrounded by a miasma of decay, futility and nothingness. There is no absence of void... Oh merry christmas"
Also there is the ecological aspect. This year I went green and used reusable gift bags and tissue paper which can be mulched and recycled into a nutritious breakfast cereal... the sparkles add fibre. Mmmm. In any case, this year's batch of presents are superior to last year's because this year's presents are not wrapped in old newspaper and brown paper lunch bags with names and cheery greetings applied with a black sharpie (tm). I win at Christmas.


I am now procrastinating. I need to tidy up a bit and then head over to Yonge and Eglinton for cookie baking and spritzer drinking, and of course tomorrow the highlight of the season-

the kitschmas tree.



I may not be able to wrap presents but I can carve an angel out of cheese.



In other news




Michelle is back from Mexico, she picked up lots of souvenirs

and by the way this is a retaliation for this post


Happy holidays. :)

Edit: I am swearing because blogger ate half my entry

praise santa

Christmas knitting is kicking my ass. Usually I only knit one present but this year I am trying to be all thrifty and personal and stuff. Never again I tells you. Never again. The one thing that I've finished is for someone whose plans have changed and is not going to be here over the holidays. Bah. Oh, and I did finish the Amigurumi doll which I have decided to give to my cousin as I think it's a bit too alternative for Gramma and my cousin will appreciate it more.

This means I have to make something else for Gramma. I settled on a couple of these





I think they're more her style. Plus she never likes anything I give her so I'm not going to stress about it. In other news the scarf of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for Poppa is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz




It is actually longer than this- 34" right now, so I think I need to do at least another 16- 20" and since I am going to be seeing the Grandparentals on Christmas day (which is a week earlier than I had anticipated) I may have to give Poppa a card with a yarn swatch telling him he'll be getting the real deal on New Years Day. This is why I don't do scarves.

Because she admired the ones I made for myself, I am also doing some newfoundland mittens for my aunt. At least they are a fun knit although I am worried she may not like the colours as I decided to make them in white instead of black.

In other news, I am out of the funk. Most of what was depressing me was circumstances beyond my control as opposed to a chemical imbalance. I am now seeing a light at the end of that particular gloom tunnel and things will definately start looking up in the new year. That is all I'm going to say about this for now because one never knows who is reading these things.... but I will get into more detail as soon as I can.

and speaking of the new year, I have decided to do a "personal sock club" for 2009. I read about it on some destashing group on Ravelry. What you do is match sock yarn to patterns and put it in an unmarked paper bag which is stapled shut. Then each month you pick a new one to do and open the bag and it's all like "Surprise...its sock yarn and a pattern!!!" It has the fun of a sock club without at the $$$. Its actually great idea for me because I've stalled on sock knitting partially because I can't decide which ones to do next. I don't really have that much sock yarn though, discounting odd balls and leftovers, I have enough for 11 pairs and one hank of Knitpicks Bare to dye which will get me up to 12. Wow, I need more sock yarn I think.

all your dreams are dead

I am trying to get Christmas knitting/crochet done.

I made this doll for someone for Christmas, maybe my grandmother, maybe my cousin... sadly not me. I like it. Maybe I'll make another one.







I have not really progressed on the scarf of boredom. I think it's half done now. Remind me to never make a worsted weight scarf again. It makes me feel like this.




I still need to start or finish the following gifts

1. brown scarf (in progress)
2. something for my Aunt (mittens? hat? Cowl?)
3. hand dyed yarn for my cousin
4. possibly something for my grandmother is I don't give her this doll.
5. Toys for She-ra (my cat)
6. Toys for Pansy (grandparent's cat)

I think I can do it. Hopefully. It beats cleaning my apartment.
I don't have anything else to say at the moment. Hopefully next week will be more exciting... in a good way. Perhaps I'll buy some clogs.





fin

November spawned a monster

Wow, it's been almost 2 months since I've posted. To be honest I've been depressed, but I won't really go into it. Hopefully things will start to look up in the next week or so but if not... well I guess I'm well on my way to achieving my goal of being a crazy cat lady. (clogs not included). I wonder if I can find someone to deliver gin, cigarettes, cat food and lottery tickets. If so, then I am set.

But until then I am too sad to even go yarn shopping.

I have been knitting, but that's about it. I made this Briar Rose Bolero for Michelle's wedding, which happened back in happier days. Sadly I have no clear pictures from the wedding because Useless the camera could not handle the "mood lighting"



The yarn was Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK. Really nice to work with but shows every single mistake and tension issue. In the future I'll just use nubble-y tweed yarn for everything since it hides a myriad of sins.



Here is an artistic and murky shot of me in the fancy dress I bought for said wedding. This was actually the first fancy dress I've ever bought that is not made of vinyl or PVC. This dress is poly-satin. It has a bow on it. I am a princess.




I was feeling sad so I made a versatility. It's a really fun knit, and even though bobbles scare me, I decided to just go for it because they are kind of funny. This was a good stashbuster. I used about 800 yards of yarn held double- one of which was a mohair blend from Wellington fibres that I have been sitting on (not literally) for a year and a half.
I've decided just to wear this as a scarf and go without buttons because really, as a shrug it looks kind of.... lumpy.

I am also making a brown scarf. A boring brown scarf. It is a gift. I don't like brown and I don't like scarves. This scarf makes me sad. I have 1 more month to finish it. I'm now about 1 third of the way through, so if I knit 1 inch a day I can dzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Sorry, even talking about the scarf puts me to sleep. I'll spare you from seeing the boring boring picturezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sorry...sorry, I'm awake.




Oh and I was sad so I made mittens. I was thinking they could be a gift but they came out pretty small- I don't know anyone with hands as small as mine (well anyone who I would give mittens to) so they are for me I guess. That makes me feel a little happy.

The pattern is Traditional Newfoundland mittens revisited and they were fun to make, a great stashbuster and as warm as a friendly cod and a bottle of Screech on a frigid day....