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!

I miss Christmas holiday, le sniff

Oy! New Year's Resolutions haven't really worked yet, so can I pretend tomorrow is the first day? I meant to start eating clean again after the Swede left, but he left lots of candy behind.

Polkagris:

And Snöre! I like kola and jordbgubb flavours:


Winter wonderland in western Quebec:

Vegan gingerbread:
The Team Canada mittens are quite the hit! I got a pair too, I love them!


Wheeee! My Mom *loves* her skidoos! And I always forget how fun it is til I get on board:

Cookie and Cupcake, the country cats who aren't allowed in the house:


Two people who are trying to remember how to skate! Ha, I haven't skated in *years* but it was so much fun and I didn't break any bones!

Oh Mom .... I hope the thieves in town can't read English, or know what rubber boots are:


Spock is my co-pilot!


Crafts I made at the Swedish Christmas Fair:

Screenprinting-on-paper workshop I went to with Krissy, I made the Christmas ball with the heart:

Christmas at the bowling alley:

I made other crafts too, and did a bit of decorating at my place even though we were leaving for Christmas. Better go floss my teeth after all that candy!

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:

California Highway 1, suburban LA and Hermosa B

Drove the fantastic highway between San Francisco and LA. It really is as gorgeous as they say. I miss it! I hope to spend more time at the ocean next year, or at least a lake or river. Water is so gorgeous.

Of course we had to take off our shoes!

November and they can play volleyball in bathing suits!

mmmmm veggie burger at beach-side pub, with avovado: