Monday, June 20, 2005

knit fit

So, I have determined that I’m a winter, not a summer, at least temperature wise. Ottawa has been experiencing a cold snap (15 – 20° C), which I have been thoroughly enjoying, and I find myself dreading the return of the heat (forecast for today, to reach 30° tomorrow). Not only is it nicer to knit when it’s cool out, but its also nicer to sleep, read, go outside, stay inside… the list could go on and on. And yet, I’m in the Canadian Foreign Service, and the areas where I would most like to work are generally warm.

On the knitting front, I have several projects on the go, as usual. I’m making: Little Black Top from Stitch ‘n Bitch, only my gauge is way off from the pattern, so I’m making adjustments as I go; socks for my sockapal2za pal; a yoga mat bag for my friend’s martial arts sticks (I don’t actually know what they’re called, but they’re almost 28 inches long); felted purses for Christmas (none of my family read this blog); a mitred square baby blanket in acrylic rainbow colours I had lying around; and a long-worked on sweater for my sister. And now I see everyone making the One Skein Wonder, and I want one too! Although I’ve yet to talk to anybody that has actually completed it with one skein.

My knitting group (S’nB?) just placed an order with KnitPicks (to share the shipping costs, since the US dollar factor mitigates the good price factor a bit), so I’m anxiously anticipating more yarn so I can start more projects. Although I really should limit myself so that some day something gets finished. We’ll see how that goes.

I’m not sure this blogging thing is going to go very far, at least until I get a digital camera and computer of my own. Blogs with pictures are just more interesting, but I can’t really justify the time to post pics since I’m supposed to be working.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

weird weather

So, after days of crushing heat, we’re now having back to back thunderstorms. I love a good thunderstorm, don’t get me wrong. I really liked how cool my room was last night from my open window, and I didn’t mind being woken up several times to listen to/watch the show. However, right now it looks like we’re in the middle of a tropical storm outside! I’m not impressed by the thought of walking home in 45 minutes, cause its foggy, windy and pouring rain. Sheets of it! And I, the ever-bright one, didn’t even bring a jacket today, because it was still pretty warm when I left for work this morning. I’m going to be soaked (and everything I’m carrying) by the time I get to SnB tonight, as I don’t think my umbrella is going to help much.

Yeah, so I’m going to the Glebe to the Stitch ‘n Bitch tonight. Should be fun! I may have to have something warm after all the rain (and I was so looking forward to trying one of Bridgehead’s iced drinks). I keep looking at patterns and dreaming of the cool things I can make (and all the cool yarn I can buy). Completely ignoring the huge stash of yarn I already have at home. I'm trying to fight the urge to buy more, as I have the wool for several projects at home that I haven't yet started. I'm even looking at wool for cardigans, cause I know with the pile of projects I have, I won't be able to finish new projects before summer is over.

And, I'm in the sockapal2za! So I already have to buy more wool for socks. Nothing else until I make a substantial dent in my WIP/projects piles.

Soccer practice last night seemed way too long. I have this incredibly short attention span (or maybe just a really poor internal clock), so a two hour practice seems so incredibly long, and I can’t wear a watch so I can’t even check and tell myself that it hasn’t been as long as I think it has. And it doesn’t even seem to depend on the activity. I can sit down to read for a half hour, and I keep checking my watch because I think the time must be up (usually cause I’ve set a time limit that is the last possible minute I can leave the house and still be on-time). Usually I start looking after 10 minutes, and look every few minutes after that.

Monday, June 13, 2005

getting started

Hmmm... getting started at this is taking some time...

So, I had a rather uneventful weekend. Went to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Steph on Friday. Did some cleaning and grocery shopping. I went on a cooking spree Sunday evening, so I have most of the food I’ll need for the next couple of days done. I also baked some surprise muffins, cannibalizing my banana muffin recipe to include blueberries and orange juice. I’ve decided that next time I experiment, I should also change the spices too, as I’m not sure orange juice and nutmeg are my favourite combination, but overall they turned out well.

I got new shoes! Did I tell you about the escalator eating my shoe? Well, it did, so the mall is reimbursing me for a new pair. I have to drop off the receipt and old shoes today. If I owned a digital camera, I would take a picture for posterity, but I guess I’ll have to do without.

Other than that, I barely moved. It was soooo hot here! And humid, and smoggy (we had a smog alert! I’ve never experienced one of those in Canada before!). Overall, the weather sucked. I have to say, the weather here isn’t my favourite. It’s known for being damn cold and humid in the winter and damn hot and humid in the summer. And we had freezing rain all winter, which leads to crappy snow for winter sports, although I’m told that that’s not normal. And all the smog and humidity prevents it from being truly sunny out, but it’s still hot!

So, the Internet is a wonderful thing. I’ve joined a knitting group on-line that is doing a sock exchange. So, the idea is I knit socks for someone else and then someone else (not the same person) knits socks for me! I’m just finishing up my first pair of socks (knit for me!), so now I have yet another project to keep me busy until mid-September. If I had my own blog (that I updated regularly) I could join other fun projects like the Secret Pal group. Actually, it’s probably good that I don’t get too involved in these on-line swaps, cause you never know what will strike my fancy next.