knitting

hee hee, this cracks me up! It's from Indexed. So true in the summer. I'm happy that it's almost normal weather for sweaters now and time to get back to knitting!

I love this knitting video, a sweater all in one day with apple and coffee and people coming and going.

double medalist in the Knitting Olympics

Hiya! I got two projects done during the Knitting Olympics. I knit a cabled neckwarmer, in red for Team Canada. It's a bit too big so I'll probably re-knit it. I must have cast on too many stitches, which would make sense because I cast on in a rowdy bar with lots of knitters while watching the fantastic opening ceremonies! The cables are pretty cool and I love the true red colour. Then I found a fantastic wooden button shaped like a heart:


I sort of have dual loyalties with Canada and Sweden, so I also crocheted OS-mössa, the hat worn by the Swedish Olympians. The Swedes say "OS" for olympiska spel, which means Olympic games, and mössa means hat. Virka is crochet. This is the first time I saw the hats, I snapped a picture of the tv showing the Swedish Olympians in the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremonies. The mittens are really great too!


There were kits for sale in Sweden with the yarn and pattern to make these hats and there was a mad dash for them and they sold out fast. Here in Canada I bought the yarn randomly, used a pattern from a blog, and whipped it up in a couple nights, which was fantastic because it was the first real project I successfully crocheted! Crochet is so much faster than knitting!

Here I am wearing the hat and holding up a head of broccoli, because I thought the green flowers the medallists got looked a bit like broccoli, but they weren't.


I really loved the Olympics this time 'round. I always like them, but I got extra excited this time. The snowboarding! The freestyle skiing! THE HOCKEY! Both the Canadian women and men got gold again.

I got really into the curling, too. The Swedish women beat team Canada for the gold medal game. The Swedes had pink brooms! And they were in a rock video awhile ago. The band, Hammerfall, was in Toronto last week but I didn't go, but check out the video with the awesome curling team, it's pretty funny!

Knitting Olympics

The Knitting Olympics are coming!

Tonight I'm going to a pub to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics with a gaggle of knitters and we're going to cast on our Knitting Olympics projects. The idea is we have to finish our projects before the end of the Vancouver Games, in 17 days. There are rules of course.

I'm going to make the Tudora neckwarmer, in red for Team Canada. And a pair of mittens or wristwarmers after that.

Whoops my picture is all green, I'll have to snap a picture of my yarn in natural light!

Let the games begin!

nerdy Swedish crafts in San Francisco

While I was in San Francisco there was an Etsy labs event at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, connected to the Open Source Embroidery exhibit. I put it on my list of things I really wanted to do in our short time there, and yay, we made it happen! I spend a lot of time at etsy.com, so I knew I'd like something organized by Etsy people.

We got to the entrance and behind the desk there was this knitted poster:


We were looking at it with squinty eyes and the woman working there said "you won't be able to read it, it's in Swedish." ha ha haaaaa, because my guy is Swedish. He didn't get it because it is a knitting pattern, knit into the ..... knitting! I almost had it figured out before she said that.

Turns out that the exhibit came from Sweden! It was mixing fibre arts with technology. Here's a quilt of text messages embroidered onto different fabrics. The texts are in English, Swedish, Norwegian and Spanish:

So the picture quality isn't great, but I like them so I can practice. I like to read stuff that Swedish people write casually, because that helps me learn how they really speak, which I don't really get in my workbooks.

There was also an embroidered motherboard:

An HTML colour quilt, it was spectacular:

A chair you could embroider on while sitting in it, listening to the iPod woven into the armrest:

And other cute textile art, like this:

FO: knitted kool aid dying test

One of my knitting friends hosted a yarn dying party last week. So generous of her to let a gang of gigglers drink wine AND handle hot water spiked with kool aid in her home!

I dyed Mission Falls 1824 cotton, which, FYI doesn't take the kool aid the same way wool does. I followed the usual recipe though, and used 4 packets of lime green kool aid. Looks like noodles:

It came out bright green:

But after I wrang it out and it dried a bit, it faded to a minty hue. Another gal did the same amount of green kool aid as me, except on wool, and hers came out brighter. I'd planned for electric lime, but I'm really happy with the mint. Any ideas? I dyed enough yarn for a tea pot cozy, but that could still change by the time I get to it...

Blythe Brunch + Nuit Blanche

Yesterday there was another Toronto Blythe Gathering, what fun! We met at Sweet Lulu and had the whole upstairs to ourselves, great spot! Magnolia got to meet another Prima Dolly Violet and many more spectacular dolls:


And last night was the 2nd annual Nuit Blanche. I didn't take many photos, but I saw lots of neat stuff. Better time management needed for next year, plus I should've taken an afternoon nap. But we managed to stay out 'til a little after 4am, after a picnic of Fresh take out in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Here are some of the pom poms at Knit Cafe, snipped in the wee hours:

There was so much branding from a certain bank you know, and some of my student loans are with them. Glad to see they're using the interest I'm paying to fund some artsy things!

quick trip to southern Ontario

I had to hit Welland for a wedding, so made sure to find some diversions there before I left. Farmer's market of course, because I have a one track mind and that's supposed to be Foodland Ontario:

I met a knitter from Welland on Ravelry and he gave me the lo-down. You should check out his podcast! He told me about a vegetarian vendor at the farmer's market, but it wasn't there this week. He also told me about knitting and crafty places all over the area, I wish I could've made it to all those little towns! I did get to Broadway Textiles, and the main LYS in Welland though:


Nancy the Librarian Action Figure liked the Welland Zine Library best:

Hit a yard sale and scored some Coronation Street loot, what great luck! Oh how I wish Spider would come back to the show with a good storyline. I wasn't watching it when he was a regular, so I only know him from when he came back to nurse Emily back to health after Richard Hillman twacked her over the head with a crowbar. He runs a juice bar in London and made her beet juice to replenish her.

Just for fun we went to Casino Niagara. I spent $5 and won $12!

Then we went to look at Niagara Falls, they're pretty.

And Magnolia climbed a tree:

Back home now, just in time to do some laundry and get to the Camera Obscura show tonight, yowza!!

Vegan Pal 2 - questionnaire

I thought I was waiting until partners get assigned to post this, but I just got a reminder to post. It was already done anyhow, so here goes.

I've been taking a break from swaps because I was late on the last few, but I couldn't resist signing up for Vegan Pal 2. One of the organizers is the fabulous Ellie, she was who I sent a package to last time. She's awesome: a vegan crafty librarian who likes cats. No wonder I like her so much, we have so much in common. The other organizer for this round is Cass, and she might have the best funniest blog name ever: Shut Up I'm Counting. The counting thing is the only drawback of SnB, it's hard to count stitches while you're shooting the breeze with friends.

So here's my Questionnaire:

1. What is/are your craft(s), & how long have you been doing it/them?

Knitting, cooking, sewing, whatever. I've been doing them all for a long while, but I'm still at the beginner-intermediate level.

2. Are you a vegan, vegetarian, veg-curious, veg-friendly or other?

Vegan

3. Is this your first swap, or have you done previous swaps before? What makes a swap enjoyable for you?

I’ve done loads of swaps, just because it’s fun to get a package together. Nice to get something surprising back and see what other people made or got.

4. What is/are your favorite color(s)? Do you particularly dislike any color(s)?

Pink, purple, black are my favourites. Don’t really dislike any colours, but I don't really like "camouflage" print.

5. Do you have any allergies (such as pets, foods, fibers or cigarette smoke)?

No allergies, no pets, non-smoker.

6. Do you have any companion animals? If so, name(s) and type(s)?*

No animals, but I have a Blythe doll called Magnolia!

7. Do you collect anything?

Zines, music, tiny little things for Blythe dolls.

8. Do you have a favorite vegan food, snack or dish? If no fav that's vegan (for those who aren't vegan), what's your favorite food? (Hopefully your pal can find a vegan version!)

Any vegan chocolate or candy would be nice. Wha Guru Chews, Green & Black chocolate bar with the soft mint centres, whatever.

9. What are some of your favorite/least favorite tastes/flavors? (e.g. sweet, salty, chocolate, crunchy, smooth, tart, sour, spicy, thai, whatever - Help your pal get a feel for what kind of recipes you might like and/or never ever make.)

All of the above! Not overly picky, as long as it’s vegan of course. I like rice bowls, pad thai, easy fruity recipes.

10. What tools/supplies/accessories for your craft(s) are you wishing you had but don't? Also, what do you have TOO many of? (basically a wish and anti-wish list)

I could use more 4.5 mm needles, because I have so many worsted weight UFOs!

11. Are you on Ravelry? What's your handle?

Got in last week! I'm "pinkvegan."

12. Is there anything else you would like your pal to know about you?

I'm an archivist / media librarian, big fan of Coronation Street, I like hearts (the cutesy kind and the anatomical kind)

13. What scents do you like/dislike?

I like the smells of coconut, vanilla and basil.


14. Do you prefer fall or Halloween or some other Autumn theme?

Halloween, but whatever!

15. Just for fun - tell your favorite Halloween or Autumn related memory.

No real memory, I just love going for walks on crisp fall days and having hot chocolate after that.

FO: a trilogy of boleros

I'm still waiting to get let in to Ravelry. I signed up on June 16 and at this point there are 1592 people ahead of me, and 13,665 are behind me. If you signed up and want to see where you are, check the antsy page.

So I can get some knitting done before I start spending my knitting time there. Melinda got me these awesome stitch markers (and lots more great birthday loot). They were made by Robyn, who I met at the last TTC Knitalong.


I went to a wedding in July and decided to knit boleros for the bride, the matron of honour and myself. Boleros are quick and easy to knit, the only hard part is deciding the size. I guess boleros are supposed to look a bit small. The wedding had summery fire colours, so the bride got reddish orange Blue Sky cotton, the colour is called Ladybug. For myself, Mediterranean, also Blue Sky cotton. Yes, I missed a yarn over on mine:


The matron of honour, who introduced me to the bride, loves green so I knit hers with a nice green organic cotton dyed by the people at Lettuce Knit. I finished knitting it on the bus to Kingston, at last moment. here it is on my knee, with my fancy GoKnit Pouch hanging on the back of the seat:


I knit in the ceremony and at the reception!! When the minister said she had to ask the congregation to stop taking photos, I thought she was going to say "put your knitting away and pay attention" but she didn't!

World Wide Knitting in Public Day 2007 and TTC Knitalong

World Wide KIP Day was on Saturday, and a knitterly good time was had by all at the TTC Knitalong!

Thanks, Melinda, for paying my food bill when I had to backtrack quickly to retrieve my un-lost wallet. Too much yarn on the brain! And thanks to Fibre Floozie for vegan cookies!